


Rey and Ben's School for Extraordinary Children

by raspberrycoffeecake



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (not among the main characters), F/M, Galactic Crimefighters, Hux & Phasma are my BroTP, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Inappropriate Use of the Force, M/M, New Generation of Sort-Of Jedi, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Slow Burn, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-15 00:57:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14148417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raspberrycoffeecake/pseuds/raspberrycoffeecake
Summary: When the Supreme Leader finds the woman he’s been searching desperately for ever since she left him on Crait, he discovers that things aren’t exactly the same as before - and she realizes that some things have changed about him, too.





	1. Capture

**Author's Note:**

> They stood for a long moment in silence, until he finally couldn’t stop himself from speaking aloud what was torturing him. “You still see me as a monster.”
> 
> She didn’t deny it, and that was all the answer he needed. The only sound she made was her breathing, still heavy from their skirmish.
> 
> “Then why let me train with your padawans? Why let me spend time with you? You don’t trust me, and I can’t blame you.” He sighed, resting his fist against the wall above her head as his lightsaber dangled in his other hand. 
> 
> This was why he didn’t deserve her. Because every time he tried to do something good, he ended up destroying it. Maybe he should just let her and her friends go back to being the Resistance, his enemies. Maybe he should return to ruling his paper empire in the cold solitude that had reigned before Rey had arrived and shone light into every corner of his dark, pathetic existence.
> 
> Then she finally spoke. “I don’t know. I should fear you, and hate you, and be searching for every possible opportunity to escape. But I’m not, am I?”
> 
> ***
> 
> This is my first work in the SW fandom, so please forgive any factual errors or inconsistencies that come from imperfect Wookipedia usage.
> 
> Enjoy!

The Supreme Leader refused to allow himself to hope when he received the report. A slim, brown-haired human woman boarding a passenger freighter bound for a small, mid-rim world. Really, the description was incredibly vague - it would probably describe billions of women throughout the galaxy. There was no reason it should be her.

This had happened all too frequently over the last two years. He would catch a glimpse of her surroundings in their Force bond connection and would chase the clue down doggedly only to have the trail go cold on him.

This would likely be no different, but he found himself stepping eagerly into his command shuttle all the same. As he punched in the coordinates and ensured that two troop transports were following him closely, he allowed himself to imagine what it might feel like to finally hold her in the flesh. 

His mind wandered back to the first time they had embraced through their Force bond. He had felt his mother’s presence in the Force suddenly flicker and die, and then, just as suddenly, she was there before him. He had sunk to the ground, and she had put her arms around him and held him, her soft, slim arms rocking him gently, the sweet smell of her skin washing over him. But it was only their damned Force connection, and after a while she had simply faded back into nothingness, leaving him alone in the dark and branded in the places her bare skin had touched his. If just touching his Jedi through the Force bond was electrifying, what would it be like to finally feel her skin on his? A shiver ran through him at the thought.

When he touched down in the dirt outside the dusty excuse for a capital city on the world he had followed her to, his pulse immediately quickened. He could feel her here, closer than he had at any point since Crait. She was unmistakable. But he couldn’t let his feelings interfere with carrying this out smoothly - he couldn’t afford to lose her this time, and risk having to wait years for another opportunity to arise.

Troopers and officers were already disembarking from the two transports that had touched down beside his command shuttle. He motioned for the soldiers to disperse through the town in small groups, avoiding notice as much as a white plastoid-covered fighting force could. At his gesture, they began jogging up dusty streets and alleyways, all heading in the direction of the public hangar where she would be touching down shortly. He himself pulled his cowl over his head and slipped into the shadows, followed closely by two burly officers.

It seemed incongruous, the idea of finding his gem in such a dirty, sad place, but the idea of taking her back to his flagship, of showering her with luxury thrilled through him. He could give his Rey anything she wanted, if she would only agree to come with him. To be his.

Feeling her presence draw closer, he flattened himself against a wall and waited for her to approach.

And suddenly, there she was. Even with a large hood pulled down to cover her features, the feeling of Rey-ness that washed over him when she appeared at the end of the dingy alley was almost overwhelming. And, as if she couldn’t help but be drawn to him, even as she remained completely unaware of his presence, she walked proudly toward his hiding place, her back straight and her footsteps sure.

She was getting closer now. A few more feet and - he stuck out his arm and suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks, her hood falling back to reveal part of her face to him. 

She couldn’t turn her head to see who had frozen her, but she must have known who would be responsible. He stepped out in front of her, knowing that he had very little time. From the reports he had seen and simply from feeling her now, he knew that she was significantly more powerful now than she had been the last time they met in person. Although he was using all of his strength to keep her frozen, he knew she would be able to shake him off soon.

He pulled his cowl down so she could see his face and approached her motionless form. “Rey. It’s been a very long time.”

As he moved to stand in front of her, he examined the woman before him. She looked up at him, and, just like every other time he had seen her, it took his breath away for a second. And he could see the same thrill run through her. Although she immediately adopted a scornful expression, he knew from her initial reaction that part of her was pleased to see him. 

That didn’t stop her from wielding all the sarcasm she could, though, when his hold released enough to allow her to speak. “Supreme Leader,” she spat, "To what do I owe the honor?” 

One side of his mouth quirked up. She certainly hadn’t lost any of her fighting spirit. But he was already losing time, and she needed to understand what was at stake before she made any rash decisions. 

He kept his tone low and even when he responded, “I have two divisions of Stormtroopers stationed throughout this town, and I know you would hate to see anyone get hurt because you tried to run from me. All I want is to speak with you. Will you grant me that?”

If Rey should decide that she wanted to risk it and run, they both knew that she would be able to get away easily. But she also had to know there would be no telling how much damage his troops might inflict on this sad, defenseless town while she ran, and he knew that her moral sense would not allow her to make that decision lightly.

And although she would never admit it, he suspected that now that she was face-to-face with the man who had haunted both her dreams and waking moments for two years, she didn’t really want to run. She wanted to see if he had changed, if there might still be a chance to turn him. The impulse was foolish, certainly, but she was also right in many ways.

She nodded, slowly, shaking his Force hold off of herself, and he held out his gloved hand. His heart pounded into his throat as it had the last time he had presented his hand to her, as he had stepped over Snoke’s burning body and the bodies of the Praetorian Guards they had slaughtered together to offer her the universe. Just as she had then, she reached toward him now, and for a few seconds he thought she might actually take his hand. 

Then, with a twitch so slight he almost missed it, she turned and ran full speed away from him. Right into the arms of the waiting officers, whom Kylo had specifically chosen for their size. Before she had time to react, they had slapped a pair of Force-cancelling binders on her wrists. She sagged slightly in defeat.

He approached her slowly. When he stood in front of her again, he gently lifted her chin with two fingers so she could look into his eyes.

“It would have been much easier if you had just accepted my offer.”

Then, with a firm grip on her elbow, as he had once led her into Snoke’s throne room, he moved her toward his waiting shuttle.

***

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She had let her guard down, let her raging emotions blind her to her surroundings, and now she was trapped.

When she had started looking into the reports she had heard of a Force sensitive child on this planet, what she heard had left her emotionally vulnerable. Even she, who by any measure had had a horrible childhood, was left wondering how anyone could do this to a child.

And that was how Ben - no, Kylo Ren, she reminded herself - had found her. The Force bond had connected them just as she was preparing to leave. He had seen the horror in her expression, and although he didn’t know the reason for it, he had pulled her into his arms, and she hadn’t resisted this time. During the long, slow trip in the hold of the passenger freighter, she could feel ghost touches where his long fingers had dragged down her arm, where he had rested his chin on top of her head, where he had wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her close.

She was still shivering from those touches when she disembarked from the shuttle, and her senses were so focused on searching for the child that she had completely disregarded the feelings of him, here - her senses must simply have been over-stimulated by their last encounter, she thought.

But then he had appeared before her in the flesh, for the first time since they had fought together on the Supremacy, and his scent and his voice and his nearness had so badly intoxicated her that she hadn’t even thought to feel for the burly men who were waiting for her at the end of the alley. 

And, worst of all, she knew she probably could still have fought them off, even with those handcuffs restricting her movement and her access to the Force, but she had stopped resisting the moment he approached her, and touched her, and whispered a frightening promise in her ear. Even as her mind screamed at her to run, her body refused to obey. Two years of dreaming what his touch would feel like if they saw each other in person again had done serious damage to her ability to resist him the way she had done in Snoke’s throne room.

Now he was guiding his sleek command shuttle, sitting completely still and not even looking over at where she sat behind him in one of the passenger seats. As they had boarded, she had been tempted to move toward the co-pilot’s chair. But she also knew how much that would delight him, and so she had avoided it out of spite. She could feel the distance between them now as if it were something tangible.

His silence was a ploy to make her speak first, she knew, but she couldn’t help giving in to it. “You said you wanted to talk. I’m listening.”

He didn’t look at her, and hummed noncommittally in response. It only incensed her further.

“So, what, we sit here in silence until you decide it’s time to torture me for information on the Resistance? Is that how this is going to play out?”

He turned back to look at her then, his gaze burning as she grew uncomfortable under his stare.

“I didn’t torture you two years ago, even when I had orders from Snoke himself. What makes you think I intend to do so now?”

At the mention of his former master, Rey suddenly couldn’t meet his eyes. The accusation was unspoken, but clear: I killed him for you, and this is how you repay me?

As much as she wanted to snap at him, something hitched in her chest and prevented her from adding venom into her tone as she responded softly, “What, then? What do you want from me?”

She heard him turn back to the controls, her question unanswered. She sighed and turned to look out the viewport at the worlds they passed as they moved through hyperspace. He was always frustrating when he decided to be this obtuse.

Rey must have fallen asleep at some point, because when she started awake, they were docking. Kylo Ren took her elbow gently and led her down the ramp into the deserted hangar. He must have asked for the deck to be cleared so her arrival would be as private as possible. So she could avoid feeling like a prisoner of war paraded through the streets of the victor’s city. Even through her frustration with him, she had to appreciate that small kindness.

He led her up what felt like miles of hallways and elevators until they reached a door that he keyed a code into and pressed open. Without speaking, he gestured her forward into the room. She knew this was her final opportunity to try to run, to retrace their steps to the hangar and steal a ship that would take her back to the Resistance. Home. But as before, her feet betrayed her, and they silently followed his order instead.

She stopped in front of him, only a few feet away from the door. His gaze traveled from her eyes down to her lips and back up to her eyes. Her breathing quickened, as she waited for him to move, now that they were finally alone. He took a step toward her, and she shivered in anticipation. 

But then his hands moved down to the handcuffs, a key turned in the locking mechanism. He pulled the binders away from her hands, and then he abruptly keyed open the door and walked out, leaving her completely alone to examine her surroundings.

The room itself was large, given that they were on a ship, and comfortably furnished. A part of her was pleased to see that the sparse decorations were tans and grays and browns - but another part was frightened by everything the gesture implied. Kylo Ren had created an entire suite on his ship for her. Her abduction was no spur-of-the-moment decision.

Since the Supreme Leader didn’t seem to have any intention of returning soon, Rey lay back on the bed and couldn’t stop herself from chuckling at the idea that the man had kidnapped her to talk with her, and then seemed unable to say a word.

***

“Supreme Leader.” The familiar voice was clipped and formal as General Hux entered the room stiffly, his hands clasped behind his back. “It seems that your expedition to Sarrish was successful?”

Kylo turned toward his second-in-command, leaning back in his chair with a faint smile as he looked at the red-headed general. “Yes, Hux, the target is now comfortably installed on the top deck.” He looked down at his hands, thinking of how Rey had leaned toward him, her lips slightly parted, right before he had left her. It had been immensely difficult to tear himself away, but he knew that she would later resent him for any advances he made on her right now, when she was feeling vulnerable. Which was why he was sitting in his office, pointedly refusing to go anywhere near her quarters.

He returned his gaze to Hux’s, turning his attention to the second part of this operation, which was almost as important as the first. “Any news on that ship I asked you to track?”

Hux raised an eyebrow, which Kylo recognized as about as close as the general would come to gloating in public. “Indeed, sir. We tracked them back to Lah’mu, which we believe is their base, and have set up patrols out of sight, as you asked. Further orders?”

Kylo Ren nodded, and pulled up an image of the planet on the holopad in front of him. Hux walked forward to examine the image as well, and pointed out a complex of buildings in one area. 

“This is what we believe to be their main base of operations,” Hux explained, “and from what we can tell from surveillance footage, their defenses are not designed to withstand any kind of sustained attack, either from above or from the ground. It looks like they’re hoping that staying hidden and being able to run quickly will be sufficient protection.”

Kylo shot his general a wolfish grin. “That suits our objectives very well.” 

Hux nodded crisply.

“Stage an ambush,” Kylo continued, “but get as many alive as you can. They will be useful in-“ he raised an eyebrow, “-negotiations.”

Hux jotted a note down on his own holopad, then returned his gaze to Kylo’s. “Stun weapons and gas, then. We’ll prepare for the assault now.”

Kylo leaned forward and put his arm on Hux’s elbow to hold him in his office. “One more thing, General. I have reason to believe there may be children on the base. It is imperative that none of them are harmed in the assault. Returning with all of them captured and alive is the only acceptable outcome. Understood?”

Hux hesitated, searching his gaze, and Kylo wondered whether his unshakable general felt discomfort in carrying out a military operation where children would be involved. He almost laughed, reflecting on the fact that Hux had had no problem turning the Starkiller weapon on billions of innocents just two years ago. But they both had changed a great deal in the time since Snoke’s death, so perhaps it really shouldn’t surprise him. 

Or maybe Hux was just afraid of earning Kylo’s wrath if he failed.

After a moment, Hux nodded crisply and left Kylo alone in his office to contemplate what to do with his imprisoned Jedi.

***

All in all, Rey’s captivity was significantly more luxurious than what she had been expecting. A droid brought her regular meals, and the closet in her quarters was outfitted with an array of clothing that looked quite similar to her preferred attire (another thing that made her feel both grateful and uneasy). Her quarters were even connected to a small training room and a weapons rack with several types of staves, which she had immediately made good use of, to keep herself in top physical and mental condition.

But Rey hadn’t seen Kylo Ren at all for several days, and she was starting to wish he would show up, even if it was just to argue with her. She had just stretched out on her comfortable beige couch and picked up a holopad to read some piece of First Order-approved history when suddenly the door to her room opened, and there he was, hair falling in perfect waves, his scar standing out in angry red contrast to his pale face.

She looked up at him. “Well?”

He looked like he wanted to sit down, but she still was angry enough at him for abducting her and then making her wait around that she wasn’t about to offer him a seat. Instead, she simply stared at him. She could wait him out if necessary.

As it turned out, it didn’t take long for him to break. “Rey, I missed you,” he finally blurted out, wringing his hands together and taking a step forward, as if he wanted to touch her but wasn’t sure if she would let him.

She raised an eyebrow. “You brought me all this way just to tell me that?”

Her refusal to engage apparently hit the wrong chord, because he immediately stiffened. “You should know that we managed to track a ship back to your Resistance base. The prisoners are being brought here as we speak.”

Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. “How many casualties?” she managed to croak out.

Kylo Ren’s tone remained flat. “About ten enemy fighters injured, two severely enough to require immediate medical treatment.”

She couldn’t handle his insistence on drawing her out. “How many dead, Kylo?”

He flinched visibly at her use of the name Snoke had given him, the one the rest of the world knew him by. She felt a twinge of guilt, but she couldn’t bring herself to call him Ben when he was about to tell her that people she had come to see as her family had been brutally murdered under his orders.

“None. Everyone survived.”

She looked at him sharply, then. This was a game he was playing with her. There was no way every single member of the Resistance had survived an all-out assault on the base unless he had ordered that no one be touched. And there was no reason for him to do that unless-

“What do you want with me?”

His eyes never left hers. Her mouth started to go dry as he took another step forward, and his throat moved in the beginnings of speech. 

However, she never heard what he was about to say because he was interrupted by two small bundles of arms and legs who came racing into the room, yelling, “Mama Rey! Mama Rey!”


	2. Grasshoppers

They refused to let him speak to any other Resistance members, but aside from that, General Poe Dameron was completely taken aback by the pleasant reception he had received aboard the First Order’s flagship. 

He was a prisoner of war, and, really, there was no reason he and his companions should still be alive at all. Armed with the location of their base, the First Order had enough firepower to knock them out altogether. Instead, the Stormtroopers had come in a ground assault and used stun weapons and gas. None of it made any sense. 

Poe lay back on the narrow cot he had been given, rubbing his temples and trying to understand what these bastards could possibly be up to. 

Eventually, he heard the door hiss open and saw a shock of red hair hanging upside-down above his face. He immediately sat up.

“General Hugs!” Poe announced, smiling, and giving his most over-the-top imitation of a salute.

Hux grimaced. “General Dameron. I am pleased to welcome you and your comrades aboard the Finalizer.”

“Thank you for your hospitality. I’m amazed to find I’m not dead yet. What gives, Hugs?”

If the idea wasn’t completely impossible, Poe might have imagined he saw Hux’s lip turn up in what looked like it might have been something resembling a smile. However, the gesture disappeared so quickly, Poe dismissed the idea as absurd.

“The Supreme Leader seems to have a use for you. I don’t question his motivations, I only carry out his directives.”

Poe scrunched up his face. “What a good lackey you are.”

Hux grimaced again. Poe’s insolence must be getting to him a little - good. It would be impossible to get anything useful out of the general without riling him up a little first.

“I don’t believe that you personally are especially central to the Supreme Leader’s goals, General Dameron, so I would watch your tongue if I were you. I doubt Ren would be especially disappointed if he heard you had suffered an unfortunate accident that landed you in the med bay,” Hux spat. 

Poe gloated to himself. He had definitely rattled Hux. But he couldn’t afford to bask in self-satisfaction until he had learned what had happened to the Resistance’s youngest members. He turned back to Hux and fixed him with a glare that he hoped conveyed all the dangerous protectiveness he felt for Rey’s Grasshoppers.

“There were children on the base when you attacked. Five of them. Where are they? If you harmed a hair on any of their heads-“

At this Hux actually laughed. Poe could only gape at him in astonishment. He hadn’t known the general was capable of laughter.

“General, you really think so badly of us that you believe we would harm children? If I weren’t so astounded at the idea, I would be offended.” 

Poe was about to point out that the First Order had, in fact, harmed many children, but Hux cut that thought off when he continued, “The children are all installed in comfortable lodgings. They should be seeing their Jedi mistress soon.”

Hux’s words hit him so hard he nearly missed the contempt with which Hux referred to Rey’s Force powers. Rey was here. He had hoped, since Rey had been off-base during the attack that she had escaped capture. But apparently she hadn’t. 

“You have Rey,” he choked out, all hope of possible escape led by their powerful Force user dashed by Hux’s revelation.

If Poe had thought Hux capable of such a thing, he would have said the general smirked. “Of course, General Dameron. Didn’t you realize she was the reason for this whole operation?”

The reason for this operation. Poe struggled to make sense of Hux’s implication, but came up short. The First Order had their own Force user - what possible purpose could they have for Rey?

Hux looked down at the holopad in his hands. “Yes, I believe they will be meeting with the Supreme Leader shortly. Enjoy your stay, General Dameron.”

The cell door slammed shut again, and Poe was left pondering what Hux and Kylo Ren had planned for all of them.

***

The timing didn’t make sense, Kylo knew. These children were at least four years old, and Rey had definitely not been dragging around toddlers when she had teamed up with him to slice apart Snoke’s Praetorian Guard two years ago. Still, it was unsettling to see these two little ones clinging to her, their hair so similar to hers, their eyes huge like her hazel ones. Something in his heart ached, imagining Rey with children of her own, although he stopped his thoughts from traveling to who might give her those children. That would make him fly into a fit of either longing or rage, depending on which direction his thoughts took, and neither would serve his purposes at the moment.

“Theo! Mattie! Come back here!” A girl who looked like she was twelve or thirteen and a boy of around the same age came running into the room after the twins. They were trailed by a smaller girl, who looked like she was eight or nine years old.

Kylo’s felt somewhat less unsettled when he saw that these children looked nothing like Rey. The older girl and the boy were both darker-skinned than Rey, and all three children had very dark brown hair. The boy had the darkest skin and short, curly hair, and the fierce protectiveness in his expression was softened somewhat by the warmth in his eyes. The older girl had long hair that fell halfway down her back and piercing eyes that immediately turned with distrust on Kylo. 

The younger girl who followed them in had a trusting, sweet expression in her almond-shaped eyes, and wore a big smile that showed off gaps where she must have recently lost teeth. When she turned, Kylo could see that her hair had been arranged in three buns, the way Rey had worn her hair when he had first met her. He wondered if that was Rey’s way of passing on a barely remembered gesture from the mother who had abandoned her. Perhaps there was the part of Rey that hadn’t left Jakku after all.

But what struck Kylo the most about the children was the waves of power that all five of them were giving off. So that was why Rey had been tracking down a Force-sensitive child on Sarrish - she had started a training temple at the Resistance base and was now gathering students.

When she saw the children, Rey smiled the widest Kylo had ever seen her smile. “Grasshoppers, you’re all alright! I was so worried about you-“

The older girl spoke first. “Mistress Rey, we were worried for YOU! You didn’t come back from your mission when you said you would, and they couldn’t contact you, and we thought you had…” She trailed off, looking back toward Kylo as if he were responsible. Which, to be fair, he was.

However, at that moment the older boy spoke and tore the girl’s attention away from Kylo. “Mistress Rey, you should have taken Riya and me with you. We can protect you better than you can protect yourself on your own.”

Rey shook her head and pulled the older children into a wide hug. “Alec, that’s exactly why I needed you two at home. For Theo and Mattie.” She patted the smaller girl’s head affectionately. “And, big and powerful as she’s becoming, Ara is still not strong enough to defend our twins on her own.” 

Then, Rey let out the closest sound to a sniffle Kylo had ever heard her make. Suddenly, Kylo was very glad that no Stormtrooper had hurt one of them by mistake - otherwise there would have been hell to pay.

Kylo could have stood and watched Rey embrace her little brood all day, but he recognized that she probably would not appreciate his intrusion into her private moment with her students. As he moved toward the door, he looked back again and caught Rey’s eye. She said nothing, but he thought he might have seen a speck of gratitude in her expression. And that would have to be enough for right now. He stepped out into the corridor to return to the bland routines of his life as Supreme Leader of the First Order - routines that, at least for now, did not include Rey.

***

The last time Finn had been escorted by Stormtroopers through the corridors of a Star Destroyer, he had been on the way to his own execution. Even though the troopers who had collected him from his cell and now held him by the elbows had said an officer wanted to speak with him, he couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that crept through him as he marched toward whomever was waiting for him.

The troopers stopped him on one of the upper levels, in front of a door Finn could only assume belonged to an office. One of them knocked, and a warm, strangely familiar female voice responded, “Come in.” The door opened, the troopers ushered Finn forward into the waiting chair, and they returned to stand guard outside the closed door.

Finn was left facing the back of a head of cropped blond hair as the officer in front of him shuffled through files behind her desk. When she finally turned toward him and said, “FN-2187,” Finn couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped his lips. Captain Phasma. Alive and helmetless.

He had never seen her face before. Her features were much softer than he had imagined, although there were several faded scars on her face. He wondered briefly whether he had been responsible for any of them during their last encounter. She was looking at him with curiosity, but her gaze was intense. Her armor was gone, replaced by standard officer dress. Had she been promoted?

Finn pulled himself together. He would not show weakness in front of his former boss, even if he was surprised (and strangely relieved, perhaps, although he wasn’t quite willing to admit it) to see her alive. He nodded at her. “Captain.”

She gave Finn a faint smile. “Colonel, now, actually. You must be wondering why I’ve called you here.” She raised an eyebrow.

Finn searched her expression for clues, then responded, “Yes, Colonel, I have no idea why you would want to speak to me, since last time I saw you, you were in the process of having me executed for treason. What changed?”

“You may be surprised to hear this, but I need your help. You may call it a favor for the Supreme Leader.”

Finn couldn’t resist rolling his eyes. “And what makes you think I want to do that bastard a favor?”

Phasma fixed him with a hard stare. “I would advise against disrespect toward the Supreme Leader while you’re his guest here.” She paused for a moment, as if making sure she had his full attention before continuing. “And I don’t expect you to do it as a favor for him. I think you’ll do it to please your Jedi friend, who is also the Supreme Leader’s guest at present.”

Finn’s jaw dropped. “Rey’s here? She wasn’t planet-side during the attack, I thought she had escaped…” He trailed off, his heart suddenly heavy at the news that Rey was here too, at Kylo Ren’s mercy.

Phasma seemed to follow his train of thought. “She’s perfectly comfortable and safe. I wouldn’t be concerned about her well-being. But if your distaste for our operation doesn’t preclude you from cooperating with us, I think you would find your participation ends up being…beneficial all around.”

Phasma was trying to convince him to do something to help the First Order, and yet there was nothing conniving or manipulative in her demeanor. Finn shrugged. He was a prisoner here regardless; he might as well hear what Phasma’s plan was.

“Alright, I’ll listen. But why do you need me for this? We both know your troopers can handle pretty much anything.”

Phasma steepled her fingers, resting her elbows on the desk in front of her and looking sharply at Finn. “The objective on this mission is extremely sensitive. My troopers are effective, but they can sometimes be rather blunt instruments. I need someone right behind me who can make sure we avoid…damaging our target.”

Catching on to her implication, Finn nodded. If Phasma needed someone to keep their target - whoever that was - safe until they could be delivered to Rey, Finn could swallow putting on the uniform one more time.

***

One morning, a few days after they had arrived, the Grasshoppers were sitting on the floor of Rey’s training room in their meditation poses. The twins were sitting right in front of Rey, so that she could keep an eye on them and remind them to stop fidgeting. The older children were sitting behind them, more focused since they had been training for longer.

Riya had been with her for almost two years, Rey reflected, and Alec only a little less than that. She stole a glance at the two children - no, adolescents, really - and marveled at how much they had both grown since they came to her. Riya, who had been bossy and loud when she first arrived, had mellowed into a strong leader. Alec had gone from a silent and stoic boy to a young man who smiled and even occasionally laughed, and who complemented Riya’s opinionated personality with his own, calm one.

Even Ara had grown up in the several months since she arrived. The girl was much more open now, although Rey knew, as with Alec, that the trauma she had endured was still lurking right under the surface.

She had found the twins only a couple of months ago, and they were young still, but she wondered how their personalities might develop over time.

As Rey returned her focus inward, she suddenly found a new presence in the room she hadn’t noticed while she had been thinking about the children. Her eyes flew open to see Kylo Ren sitting calmly, also in meditation pose, behind Alec and Ara. How long had he been here? Why was he here? Didn’t he have…Supreme Leader duties to attend to?

As if he could sense her thoughts - and, she reflected with a tinge of annoyance, he probably could - he opened his eyes slowly and lifted an eyebrow at her. She held his gaze for a moment, caught between annoyance at his intrusion and a strange sense of peace and rightness. He looked like he belonged here, among her students, helping them focus with his own meditation. Rey almost laughed aloud at that thought - since when did Kylo Ren sit calmly and quietly, without yelling at anyone or throwing a tantrum?

Of course, that reminded her of a few such moments they had shared in the past, and a hot flush spread up her cheeks. She dropped her gaze, although she could still feel his eyes boring into her, clearly following her train of thought. No, she would not go there today. So she closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, and forced her body and mind to return to her calm meditation space.

Rey didn’t know how much time had passed - she never did, when they were meditating - when the group’s focus was interrupted by a small voice announcing suddenly, “Mistress Rey, we have a visitor!”

Rey’s eyes shot open and she smiled at Ara, whose eyes were wide and staring at the Supreme Leader. Well, he was the one who had intruded, so he would have to be the one to explain himself. “Would you care to introduce yourself to the group?”

He smiled. Rey was caught off-guard - she didn’t think she had ever seen him smile before. “I’m Ben. I hope you don’t mind that I joined your meditation this morning.”

Ara was giving him her widest smile, while Alec was looking at him skeptically and the look Riya was giving Rey was loaded with accusation. 

The Supreme Leader shrugged, and began to rise. “I don’t want to interrupt your work any further.”

Ara rose, too, and ran over to hug his legs, looking up at him plaintively. “Will you come back tomorrow, Master Ben?”

He smiled at that address, then looked over at Rey. She shrugged, and he looked back down at Ara. “I’ll try, Mistress -“

“Ara!” she interrupted, with another toothy grin. “I’m Ara! And that’s Riya, and Alec, and Theo and Mattie - but they’re annoying, so don’t talk to them,” she concluded with a grimace. Rey couldn’t stop herself from chuckling at the look her small student was giving the most powerful man in the galaxy.

The Supreme Leader ruffled Ara’s hair, and then announced, “It was nice to meet you Ara, Riya-“ he turned toward the other students, “Alec, Theo, and Mattie. I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.” And then he was walking out the door.

Rey slumped a little, and announced, “I think that’s enough meditation for today. Grab your weapons from the rack and we’ll do staff forms.”

As the smaller students ran over to the weapons rack, Riya and Alec hung back, both skewering Rey with accusation in their eyes. Not for the first time, Rey thought it might have been nice to have students who weren’t quite so perceptive at such a young age.

Riya spoke first. “Mistress Rey, that was the Supreme Leader! What was he doing in our training room?”

Alec added, “And why did he call himself Ben?”

Rey sighed. “We’ll discuss it later. Right now, I really need to hit something with a big stick.”


	3. Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter contains references to child abuse.
> 
> Also there are lightsabers.

It felt bizarre to be back in Stormtrooper gear, but Phasma had insisted he wear the armor, in case the situation heated up. She was back in her reflective armor and helmet as well, as she led the elite squad, only ten of them in total, through the dirt roads of this settlement on Sarrish. 

Finn was still not convinced that he was doing the right thing. After two years of working against the First Order, of renouncing his Stormtrooper past, here he was in uniform again. But when Phasma had told him the objective of the mission, and why it would matter to Rey, he couldn’t say no.

Finn kept his eye on Phasma’s back as he jogged behind her, next to a trooper who hadn’t so much as glanced over at Finn since the mission began. He guessed that Phasma had specifically instructed them not to get too close to the traitor. It gave him a little unexpected thrill, to realize that the First Order considered him dangerous.

Their target was an unassuming building that fronted one of the many narrow alleyways in this town. When they walked up to the door, Phasma crouched on one side and the trooper who had been next to Finn moved to the other. Finn moved up close behind Phasma.

At a sign from Phasma, she and the other trooper used their blasters to burst the door from its hinges. Immediately, someone inside began firing at them. Finn’s stomach lurched. So he might end up killing for the First Order after all. But then he thought of the target they were trying to rescue, and his resolve hardened. If he had to kill to get that little girl out of this hellhole, then so be it.

Phasma downed the shooter with a quick blast, and motioned for the squad to follow her inside the building. She sent half of the squad to clear the first floor, while leading Finn and three others to the floors above. Edging carefully up the staircase, they found themselves in a dark, narrow hallway. 

As soon as they had reached the top of the stairs, Finn could faintly feel the presence of a Force sensitive. Rey had told him that he was a little bit Force sensitive himself, although not as powerfully as any of her students, and he had sometimes joined them in their meditation sessions. He couldn’t move objects with his mind, but he had asked Rey to teach him to identify Force sensitives at close range, in case it might help with her mission.

It seemed it would help him today. He pointed toward the end of the hallway, and Phasma nodded. He led the way this time, his blaster at the ready to defend against any other attackers, but the upstairs was silent. As if even that kind of violence wouldn’t dare touch the hopelessness that fed on the inhabitants of these tiny, dingy rooms.

Finally, they reached the end of the corridor, and he opened the door to the room he had felt the presence emanating from. In the center of the room, curled up in a tight ball, was a Twi’lek child who looked no older than Rey’s twins. As he entered, she skittered away from him to the edge of the room, and the full truth of what had been happening here hit him like a Star Destroyer crashing on his head.

***

Ben - Rey didn’t know exactly when she had gone back to calling him Ben in her mind - joined the Grasshoppers in their meditation almost every day. Sometimes he would stay for staff training and pair off with Alec or Riya, who would exalt whenever they managed to land even a weak hit on him. She wondered if they found it satisfying to exact an ounce of revenge on the Supreme Leader while he was trying to remain incognito. Once Ara had innocently suggested that Rey and Ben spar, and they had looked at each other in embarrassment before turning away, both aware that, whatever might happen when they finally sparred again, the children probably shouldn’t be around to see it.

One morning, a week after her Grasshoppers had first shown up in her rooms, Ben didn’t show up for meditation. And every time Rey tried to meditate, she found her mind wandering to him. Was he alright? Where was he? Why wasn’t he here? 

She scolded herself. When had she become so attached to this man’s presence, after she had been doggedly avoiding him for the last two years?

Finally, near the end of their time, Rey felt Ben enter her quarters. She could feel his agitation as soon as he approached, and she could feel her own nerves respond. Something was very wrong.

Silently, she rose, sending little tendrils of energy toward her students to keep them focused on their meditation. She met him outside the door, and her eyes immediately flew to the tiny Twi’lek child he was holding tenderly in his arms.

He sat himself on the couch, keeping the child tucked against his chest, and Rey sat down beside him. She raised her eyes to his, waiting for him to speak.

“This is the child you were looking for on Sarrish.” 

Rey couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped her lips.

“Your friend Finn-“ Rey raised an eyebrow in surprise: Ben never referred to Finn as anything other than The Traitor, “- helped Colonel Phasma lead a rescue mission.”

Rey nodded, mesmerized by the sight of Ben holding this child with a gentleness she had never seen him direct at anyone except her. “Thank you,” she choked out, extending a hand to touch the child’s head.

Ben’s tone was soft as he continued. “I’m keeping her under right now. The med bay examined her, and physically, she’s healthy, but-“ He cleared his throat, and looked down at the child again. “I wanted you to be there when she wakes up. She’s going to have a hard time trusting anyone for a while. Phasma said that she tried to run from Finn when she first saw him.”

Rey already knew the answer to her question, but she had to hear it aloud, to hear it confirmed, so that she could rage at the people responsible, and then start the difficult work of helping this child heal.

“Ben,” she began, and he fixed her with a sympathetic look, “where did they find her?”

Keeping one arm around the child, he moved closer to Rey and pulled her toward him. At another time, she might have resisted the gesture, but now she leaned against him willingly. She needed him close at this difficult moment, and he knew that. His arm around her shoulders felt warm and comforting as they now both cradled the child.

When he spoke, it was into the top of her head, as if he didn’t want even the empty room to hear him. “Rey, they found her in a brothel.”

***

As he stepped away from his Stormtrooper escort and into Hux’s office, Poe couldn’t help but be surprised by the lavish furnishings. Fine wood desk, expensive rug, tasteful paintings on the walls. It looked like the den of a scholar of early Republican history, not a general’s war room.

Seeing Poe openly staring, one side of Hux’s mouth twitched up. “I assure you, General,” he quipped, “I do have some interests beyond butchering and conquering.”

Poe shrugged. He wasn’t going to fight Hux on this minor point, but he also wasn’t going to let someone with hands as bloody as Hux’s believe that good taste in interior design could redeem a lifetime of atrocities.

Hux looked at Poe silently for a moment, as if trying to read his thoughts. Then he cleared his throat, apparently ready to get down to whatever business he had summoned Poe here for. “I’d like to speak with you about the status of members of the so-called Resistance on my ship.”

Poe’s eyes widened. This was unusually blunt for Hux, who tended to maneuver and manipulate until he got what he wanted. Hux seemed to be waiting for Poe’s permission to continue, so Poe coughed and said, “Go on.”

Hux interlaced his fingers and rested his elbows on the desk in front of him, fixing Poe with an intense stare. “While I’m perfectly capable of keeping your soldiers contained on the Finalizer, I’ll admit that it would be easier on my resources to remove them from custody and give them some sort of… purpose on board.”

Poe raised an eyebrow. “You would just… let them roam freely around your ship? To be honest with you, that doesn’t seem very wise.”

Hux leaned in a little closer. “Well, General, it depends on who is held accountable for their actions. I would imagine that if their commanding officer instructed them to behave, then we would not have a problem.”

Poe looked at Hux for a moment before bursting out laughing. “If you think that, Hugs, then you clearly don’t know my Resistance fighters very well. They don’t take crap from anyone, including me.” His expression darkened. “And they shouldn’t take that kind of crap from me. That’s the main problem with your offer. If I told my fighters to behave and pitch in cheerfully on a Star Destroyer belonging to the very organization we’ve been fighting for years, they would force me out of command faster than an X-Wing going after a TIE Fighter.”

Hux grimaced at the analogy, but he motioned for Poe to continue.

“You’re the kriffing First Order, Hugs. Why the hell do you think my fighters are going to drop their weapons and help you?”

Hux leaned back in his chair and studied Poe for a long moment, until Poe felt his cheeks heat up under the general’s gaze. He shook his head slightly - he hadn’t blushed like this since he was still playing around on simulators.

Finally, Hux said, “I don’t think you understand the changes the First Order has undergone since Snoke’s…removal. When was the last time a First Order raid seriously damaged your fleet? Killed any of your fighters?”

Poe surged forward, suddenly angry. “We’ve gotten good at avoiding your patrols. Stealth is our greatest strength.”

Hux laughed then, and Poe shifted in discomfort at the bizarre sound. “General Dameron, we’ve known the locations of several major Resistance targets over the last two years. It has simply never been in our interest to attack them. Our objectives have changed.”

Poe looked at the general closely. “Then what are your objectives?”

“We want to bring order to the galaxy. We want to bring the wealthy and decadent to their knees. We want to end slavery and exploitation. And perhaps one day, once the mighty have been humbled, the galaxy will be able to rule itself justly and well.”

Poe gaped. He could find no words for several long seconds. All he could think of was, finally, “When did this happen?”

A corner of Hux’s mouth twitched up; apparently he was amused by how much he had perplexed Poe. “Our new Supreme Leader learned of… someone who grew up scavenging for crumbs, barely surviving.”

Oh. Poe was now starting to put the pieces together. This was making more sense now. In a just-fell-into-an-alternate-universe-where-the-First-Order-think-they’re-the-good-guys kind of way.

Hux saw understanding begin to dawn on Poe’s face, and continued. “There were many stories like that. Colonel Phasma in particular strongly supported the Supreme Leader’s plans once he began sharing them. You did know that she is transforming her Stormtrooper corps into a volunteer fighting force, of course?”

Poe’s mouth fell open a little farther, if that was possible. “Volunteer? No, somehow that information didn’t reach our sources.”

The two men stared at each other for a long moment, Poe in shock at what he had just heard, Hux practically smirking at having been able to surprise the legendary pilot. 

Then Poe shook his head. “Well, whatever your objectives are, you’re still causing destruction, and I know my fighters have no interest in following your orders.”

“Oh, but General,” Hux responded, his smile growing wider, “they already are. Didn’t you know that your friend Finn just accompanied Colonel Phasma on an off-ship mission? I hear he was quite invaluable. And, of course, your Jedi friend has happily incorporated the Supreme Leader into her students’ training.”

That was a low blow. While he had been holding out against Hux’s seductive words, Rey and Finn had been happily joining in with their enemies. Poe sighed and looked away.

Thankfully, Hux seemed to recognize the conflict that was raging inside of Poe, and he chose that moment to end the meeting. He stood up, businesslike, and shook Poe’s hand. “Well, General, think about what I said. We’ll speak again soon.”

Poe turned back to look at Hux right before he opened the door to return to his escort and his cell. The man was already pulling something up on his holopad, and Poe was suddenly struck by how young he looked. He couldn’t have been much older than Poe himself. Hux looked up, and caught Poe staring, and something sizzled in the air between them for a second. Then Poe turned away. Yes, he would certainly have a lot to think about tonight.

***

He had brought the Twi’lek child back to consciousness while Rey, Riya, and Alec clustered around her so that she could learn their faces. They had all murmured comforting words and used their Force powers to send calm images and emotions into her mind. Even so, she was frightened from the moment she awoke. 

She shied away any time someone tried to come near her, and she seemed to prefer sitting on her own in a corner, curled up into a tight ball with her back pressed against the wall. And she wouldn’t speak - not in any language they tried. With no idea what name she might respond to, Riya had taken to calling her Hien, and the name had stuck. 

So the Grasshoppers had continued their training, and Hien had slowly begun inching forward during meditation, crossing her legs and closing her eyes in imitation of the older children. She would stay firmly in the corner during staff training, however, her eyes wide as she watched the students slash their weapons, first in unison, then in sparring matches.

Kylo never tried to touch her, since he knew it was still too soon for her to trust any of them. But while Rey and her students were occupied, he would sometimes sit beside her in silence, and she would tolerate his presence. As the days went by and she didn’t inch away from him, he began to inch closer to her, hoping she might eventually become accustomed to her guardians. He knew Rey, Alec and Riya were all doing the same. Small steps, but they had to start somewhere.

With long blocks of time dedicated to training, free of daily chores on the Resistance base, Kylo saw the students were making fast progress. So one day after their weapons practice, he pulled Rey aside.

“I think your students are ready to begin working with lightsabers.”

Rey’s eyes widened. “Where would we get sabers to practice with? I don’t think the students are ready to build their own yet, and I don’t know where we would get the crystals to power them.” Her eyes fell to the ground. “I haven’t even rebuilt my own yet.”

He picked up a case he had brought with him, and opened it to reveal six practice sabers. Rey’s eyes flew to his, and he knew what she was going to ask. He shook his head.

“They can use these. I think it’s time they learn to use a Jedi weapon, don’t you?”

Her smile in response was radiant, and his heart leapt. A sudden impulse arose in him, making him want to grab her and kiss her silly, but he stopped himself. This wasn’t the time.

The next morning, Rey stopped the students when they headed for the weapons rack to get their staves. She announced, “Ben and I have decided that it is time for you to learn how to use the Jedi weapon, the lightsaber.” Kylo’s stomach did a flip when Rey said “Ben and I” - when had she begun thinking about them as a unit?

“But Mistress Rey,” Riya remarked, “You always say we are not Jedi, that we are forging a new path.”

Then Kylo thought his heart had actually stopped. They weren’t her padawans? She wasn’t training a new generation of Jedi, as Luke had done? Then what in kriffing hell was she doing? 

Rey looked over at him, clearly sensing his confusion, then turned back to Riya. “We’re not recreating the Jedi order. Their methods were flawed, and there is no reason for us to bring back something that didn’t work. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take what they did and turn it into something we can use.”

Kylo had never felt prouder of this beautiful woman he had the honor of standing next to. She smiled up at him, and whispered in his ear, “Be careful with them, Ben.”

The students took practice sabers from Kylo, the older ones turning them over carefully in their hands, completely awestruck. Rey took one, too, and Kylo pulled out his own saber to demonstrate. He smirked at the looks of wonder that appeared on all of the students’ faces - even Hien’s - when he ignited his saber and the crackling red blade painted the walls of the room crimson.

He and Rey led them through Form I, as they got used to the feel of the sabers in their hands. A few times he had to use the Force to push one of the twins out of the way of someone they were about to hit with their dull practice sabers, but overall the lesson went smoothly.

Kylo lingered by the door to Rey’s room as the children were escorted back to their room. She moved to stand closer to him, and for a few moments he just basked in her presence. She didn’t move away, so he wondered if she was feeling something similar.

Then she looked up and met his eyes, and he reached out a hand to cup her cheek. She didn’t flinch, and suddenly the room felt too hot. He managed to rasp out, “I’d like to spar with you again, Rey. I think the children would learn a great deal from seeing what two experts can do.”

Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him and said, softly, “I’d love that, Ben. But I think the effect would be somewhat lost with practice sabers.”

Then he smiled, glad that she had caught onto his thoughts. “I think it’s time for you to build your own saber.”

She stared at him, mouth slightly open. “Why would you give me a weapon I can fight my way out of here with?” She shrugged, and her tone became sad. “You would just be arming your enemy.”

He shook his head, trying to drain some of the self-loathing that had flooded him when she called herself his enemy. Yes, he had done some things that might have given her that idea, but she had to hear the truth.

“Rey, you’ve never been my enemy. My opponent, yes, but I’ve never had any desire to harm you.”

She said nothing, but her faint intake of breath told him she had heard him. He took her hands lightly in his own - the first time they had actually touched hands, he mused, since Skywalker had interrupted them - and looked at her solemnly. “Will you take a trip with me?”

She nodded, their eyes locked as neither of them moved for several breaths. 

They had come to an agreement. It was now time for him to return to his other duties. But he desperately wanted, needed to feel her one last time before he left her for the night. So he pulled her closer to him, pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, and then drew away with a soft, “Good night, Rey.”


	4. Kyber

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to heat up (slowly). Rey and Ben go on a field trip. Rose is not very happy.

They didn’t speak much more on this trip than they had the last time Rey had been in Ben’s command shuttle, but it was a companionable silence. There were no binders on her wrists, and this time Rey had immediately settled comfortably into the co-pilot seat, running the ignition sequence from her console as Ben maneuvered the shuttle out of the hangar and set the coordinates for their destination.

Riya and Alec had assured her multiple times that they would have no trouble taking charge of the Grasshoppers’ training while she was gone, and so she had reluctantly agreed to go with Ben to the planet in the Unknown Regions where he had found the crystal for his own saber.

Part of her marveled at the fact that, after spending so much time hunting her down, he would willingly let her leave the ship without any kind of restraints. He probably thought that he could restrain her if necessary. And, given how little she had resisted when he had kidnapped her, he was probably right.

After they had been traveling in hyperspace for a while, she looked over at him. “Ben, can I ask you something?”

He nodded, eyes still fixed ahead of the ship.

“While we’re there, looking for my crystal, you could…” Suddenly, she felt awkward asking about this. Surely this was something deeply personal for him. But she had already begun, so she forced herself to finish. “The crystal in your saber is cracked. Why don’t you build one that’s more stable?” 

Ben looked at her for a long moment, then burst out laughing. She realized that she enjoyed the sound, now that she was hearing it for the first time.

After a moment, he wiped his eyes, then reached over and covered her hand with his, looking straight into her eyes. “Rey, my lightsaber may be imperfect, but so am I. It’s part of me now, just as yours will soon be part of you.” Then he smiled again. “Besides, I don’t know if I can beat you if I don’t have a blade as powerful as mine to back me up.”

She freed her hand from his and hit him lightly on the shoulder. “You can’t beat me even with that thing! Face it, Ben, you’re just not as good as I am.”

He took her by surprise and grabbed her hand from where she had laid it on his shoulder. Then, looking at her with eyes she could only describe as smoldering, he turned her hand in his much larger one and planted a gentle kiss on her palm. Before she could actually melt into her seat, he placed her hand back on the armrest and returned his focus to the ship’s controls.

***

As Kylo searched for a flat place to land on the rocky planet’s surface, he tried not to think about how he built his own lightsaber. How he had created it - bled it - by channelling all the fear and pain and rage he had built up through a lifetime of feeling neglected and worthless, and the memory of the intensity of all those emotions he had used to build his weapon now make him shudder. He truly had become a different man in the two years since he had killed Snoke for Rey. Since he had fallen in love.

He pushed that thought away - it wouldn’t help Rey if he got distracted now.

He set the shuttle down and stood from his seat. He held out his hand to Rey in a vague approximation of the codes of chivalrous masculine behavior his mother had once taught him, and to his surprise, she took it, allowing him to hold her for a moment before he gently released her and led the way outside.

He was looking for a fissure in the rocky surface below them, just barely large enough to fit an adult human. He followed his memories, closing his eyes every few steps to feel through the Force. When they finally reached the opening and he felt certain it was the right one, he gestured to Rey.

“You’ll find the vein of crystals at the bottom of that opening. Don’t search one out; the right one will call to you. You’ll know what to do once you’ve found your crystal.”

Her eyes flew to his. “You’re not coming down there with me?”

He shook his head. “Finding a kyber crystal is something a Jedi - or even a sort-of Jedi - needs to do on her own. This is about you, Rey, not me.”

She still hesistated, and he sensed that she needed some kind of reassurance. He drew her to him again and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Then she nodded, pulled away from him, and began her descent into this planet’s rocky core.

As he watched her slowly fade from view, he thought about how Rey had practically pleaded with him to join her. This woman was fiercely independent, never asked anyone for help. And he laughed at the idea that she might be afraid of heights or tight spaces; after all, in his first months as Supreme Leader, he had traveled to Jakku and seen the ship graveyard she had scavenged in. 

So what had her feeling so vulnerable at this moment? Was it leaving Hien behind for the first time since he had brought the little Twi’lek to her? Apprehension about building her own lightsaber? Or could she simply…want him near her?

He refused to dwell on that last possibility. That way was dangerous.

To clear his mind, he chose a flat spot and sat in meditation pose, hoping to clear his mind and send his focus to her through their Force bond to help her in her task.

He was still meditating when she emerged some time later, clutching two small crystals in her palm. He opened his eyes slowly and raised an eyebrow as she sat down next to him to show them to him.

“They both called to me. It doesn’t make any sense. Wasn’t it just supposed to be one crystal?”

Kylo thought for a moment, then laughed. “Rey, I think they both called to you because you’re supposed to have a double-bladed saber.”

She looked at him like he had just grown another head.

“No, listen. You’re a natural with a staff, so it makes perfect sense that you would have a saber that resembles a staff.” He clasped his hand around the one of hers that held the two crystals. “We’ll start construction on your saber when we return to the Finalizer. Let’s get going.”

And he again stood, and offered her his hand, and she took it. This time, the temptation to pull her into his arms was almost overpowering, with the scent of her sweat coming off her in waves that threatened to drown him, her heavy breathing drawing him in. He was getting entirely too comfortable holding her.

Then she did something entirely unexpected - she draped her arms around his neck and, standing on tiptoe, placed a warm kiss on his cheek. “Thank you, Ben,” she whispered, before leading the way back to the shuttle.

***

Rose was lying on her cot reading a generic technical manual - one of the few things she had been given access to on this holopad - when the door to her cell suddenly opened. She hadn’t seen another person, aside from the Stormtroopers who dropped off her meals, in almost two weeks, and she leapt up in anticipation.

Suddenly, she was being crushed in a warm hug as she squealed in delight, “Finn!” His scent washed over her, immediately comforting, and she found herself wanting to stay in his arms even as he pulled back to look at her face. Then, framing her face with his large hands, he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before moving to sit across from her in the spindly chair her room had been provided with.

Rose couldn’t help the tiny pang of disappointment she felt when he moved away. He hadn’t initiated anything beyond hugs in the two years since she had kissed him on Crait, and she assumed that meant he wasn’t interested. 

Over the last two weeks, that hadn’t stopped her from wondering whether perhaps the time apart and the stress from capture might just push him to do something. But it hadn’t, and so she resigned herself to her usual role of helpful best friend.

“I can’t believe they let you see me!” she exclaimed, looking at him in pleased disbelief. “I didn’t think they were letting Resistance members speak to each other at all.” 

Finn leaned his head back against the wall and sighed, and suddenly, Rose’s suspicions were aroused. What had Finn done to convince them to give him this privilege?

“OK, I’ll tell you, but first you have to promise not to kill me.”

Rose rolled her eyes. That was a great start. “Alright, Finn, I promise not to kill you - but I fully reserve my right to hit you if I think you deserve it.”

Finn looked like he was about to laugh until he caught the deadly serious look in her eyes. Good. If he had done something cowardly and irresponsible, he should be scared of her. She fixed him with her most imposing stare, and waited for him to begin.

“They brought me to see Phasma. A few days after we got here. She asked me to go on a mission to help Rey, and I said yes. We were successful, and so today they said I could see you.”

Kriffing idiot. Rose couldn’t bear to look at him. He had betrayed everything they were doing for Rey. Again.

He reached out toward her, his hand moving to her cheek. “Rose…”

She responded with a hard slap. He recoiled instantly, looking at him with wide eyes that reminded her of a hurt puppy.

They were silent for several minutes. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet. “Rose, they sent us to rescue a child. From a…” His voice choked up. “From a brothel. Whatever the First Order is doing, maybe not all of it is bad. Maybe if they’re doing things that are good for the galaxy, we should help instead of sitting here in our cells, proud that we didn’t sully ourselves by collaborating with the evil First Order. I wore that uniform my whole life, Rose, and I’ve never seen them interested in helping kids before. Something’s changing, and if it’s going to make a difference, then I want to be a part of it. Whether you’re willing to join me or not.”

The First Order had bombed her home planet. And now Finn, of all people, who had seen what the Stormtroopers were forced to do firsthand, was trying to make excuses for them? Then again, if anyone was in a position to recognize the opportunity for change, maybe Finn was it.

Rose sighed and looked back into his eyes. “Finn, I don’t understand any of what they’re doing with us, and I don’t trust them. But if you’re going to help them whether or not I agree to it, then maybe I need to be there to make sure you haven’t bitten off more than you can chew.”

Finn touched her hand, then rose to leave. “Thanks, Rose.” And then the door was closing, and Rose was left alone again with much more to ponder.

***

The Grasshoppers had been fine when she stopped by their rooms to check on them, so Ben brought her back to her quarters and suggested she get some sleep before they began the long process of constructing her saberstaff tomorrow.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re going to help me build it? I assumed you had… Supreme Leader duties to attend to.”

He laughed. “Hux can take care of anything urgent. Building your lightsaber is a big deal, and I want to be there to help out if I can.”

Rey could see Ben was about to leave for the night, and she had the sudden urge to feel his skin on hers one more time. She lifted herself up onto her toes, and just as she had on the rocky planet where she had found her kyber crystals, Rey kissed his cheek.

The taste of his skin under her lips, even for just the instant they touched, was almost intoxicating. She pulled away reluctantly, her eyes searching his, feeling like she had just been set on fire, wondering if he was feeling the same.

If he was, he gave no indication. His response was muted in comparison to what she was feeling, but it still burned her when he reached his hand up to cup her cheek. Then, kissing her forehead, he whispered, “Good night, Rey,” and left the room.

She tried to sleep. She really did. But she kept feeling his lips on her palm, her forehead, and then imagining how they might feel if they ventured to other parts of her body. She squirmed in her large bed, trying to get away from images of his thick muscles rippling under his uniform, from thoughts of how they might feel wrapped around her, pressing tight against her.

She let out a small moan, and one hand moved down to cup herself, while the other began to fondle a breast. If he was determined to keep his distance, then she would have to take care of things herself.

But just as she was beginning to move against herself, the Force bond snapped open and Ben was standing a few feet away from him, and she could tell even in the dim light that he was embarrassed. She stopped moving, although she kept her hands where they were.

He spoke first. “I didn’t think the Force would connect when we’re physically so close.” Ah, the emergence of rational, scholarly Ben. It was clear, even in this familiar persona, that he was trying desperately to maintain an even tone and pretend he was ignorant of what Rey was clearly in the middle of doing.

After a moment, she spoke, although it wasn’t in response to what he had said. “Ben?” she threw out tentatively, “will you come to me?”

He took a step away from her and she immediately felt ashamed. What an idiot she was, to think that he wanted her. For him, this was about her power as a Force user, not about their bodies.

But, as if seeing where her thoughts had gone, Ben stepped forward again and began to run a soothing hand through her hair.

“Rey, I can’t.” 

She was afraid to ask why, afraid he would tell her something she didn’t want to hear. And his fingers felt so nice in her hair. So she amended her request. “Will you stay?”

He responded with a groan, and she took that as a sign to continue. With his hand running through her hair, sending chills up her spine, she slipped a hand under her waistband to touch herself, increasing the speed of her movements as Ben moaned above her.

“Force, Rey, you’re so beautiful.”

She gasped, his words taking her breath away. Sure, he had called her strong, powerful before, but never beautiful. She moved faster as he continued to touch her, confining his movements to her head as if he were afraid that touching anywhere else would make him lose control entirely.

When she finally came, shaking, around her fingers, Ben caressed her scalp a final time, pressed his lips to her forehead, and melted away into the darkness.

She sighed and lay back into her pillow, waiting for sleep to come.

***

Long after Rey-but-not-really-Rey had disappeared from his bed, Kylo’s fingers could still feel the warmth of her scalp, and he could still hear her soft moans of pleasure. 

He did not deserve her. He had brought her here, yes, but he could tell himself that it was only to protect her, to ensure that she didn’t fall victim to some inane conflict between the First Order and the Resistance. He was dirt beneath her feet, and he did not deserve to even touch her, although it seemed he was destined to fall victim to that weakness.

But he would not sully her. He would keep her close, and her closeness would be enough. Kylo sighed and lay back on his bed, knowing that sleep would not come for him that night.


	5. Duels

Hux didn’t even look up when the Stormtroopers led Poe into his office and sat him in front of the general’s large desk. Hux was getting too used to having him at his beck and call, Poe groused to himself. So, just to spite the redhead sitting across from him, Poe slouched low in the plush chair, crossing his arms over his chest and doing his best to look disgruntled at having being summoned. 

After several minutes in which Hux never acknowledged his presence, Poe finally lost his patience and unceremoniously placed one foot on top of the desk. Hux finally looked down at him with an expression Poe guessed was somewhere between indulgent and annoyed and, reaching across the desk, firmly gripped the offending boot and removed it. 

Poe kept his arms firmly crossed and gazed up at the general from where he was still slouching. “So, Hugs,” he quipped, “since I found some time in my busy schedule to fit you in, what do you want to talk about? Did you want to recommend some new books to read? The selection on my holopad is getting pretty low. Soon I’ll have to resort to romances.” Poe waggled his eyebrows at Hux, who stiffened slightly.

“No, General Dameron,” Hux finally replied, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the desk, “I have something of much greater import to discuss. Colonel Phasma is putting together a mission I think you might be interested in.”

Poe sat up a little. “Since I’ve already told you my men will not be helping you, I have no idea why you think I might be interested in your mission,” he spat out.

Hux smiled in a way that struck Poe as almost predatory. “My dear general, you would really refuse to aid the First Order in eradicating slave trading and the exploitation of children from the galaxy? What would General Organa say if she could see you now?”

That was a low blow. Poe caught himself before he could actually growl. Instead, he fired back, “She would stay we stuck to our principles. Especially since you have none.”

Hux stared at Poe for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then, without warning, he stood and walked around the desk. His approach was calm, but there was something menacing in his step that made Poe shiver slightly as he tracked Hux with his eyes. Hux stopped behind and slightly to the left of Poe’s chair, then flicked a switch to make a holo projection appear above the surface. 

He gestured to a number of tiny dots illuminated in a stretch of space Poe recognized as part of the Mid Rim. “Each of those systems is connected in some way to a cartel we are currently targeting. As you can see, their reach in this area of the galaxy is wide.” He turned to look down at Poe, his voice softening. “If we succeed at wiping them out, that’s a lot of crime we have put an end to. Many…individuals who are freed. Does that not align with your principles? Or is your head so far up in the clouds that you won’t act to alleviate suffering when it’s staring you in the face?”

Poe stood up, straightening to his full height (which was still shorter than Hux’s by several inches), and found that their faces were suddenly almost uncomfortably close. He fought down another shiver and fixed the general with a pointed stare. “Why are you doing this, Hux?”

Hux lifted an eyebrow and replied, “The First Order’s priorities have changed.”

Poe shook his head. “Not the First Order, Hux. You. The General Hux I’ve read about in more intelligence reports than I can count wouldn’t flinch at seeing a hundred children slaughtered in front of him. Why have you suddenly started caring about other people?”

“Maybe I’ve grown soft in my old age.”

Poe bit out a bitter laugh. “Not likely. Tell me, Hux. I’m not falling for your shit unless you tell me what you’re getting out of this.”

For a moment, Poe thought Hux might not respond. But then he took a step closer, making Poe’s pulse speed up. Kriff, Poe hadn’t felt so vulnerable around another person in years. He was always the one in charge, the one initiating, the one who kept his cool, and suddenly another man moving close to him had him as skittish as a green pilot in his first dogfight.

Hux leaned in closer, his mouth nearly touching Poe’s ear as he whispered, “Maybe being…good…is its own reward.” Poe let out a long breath as Hux drew away, never allowing his eyes to leave Poe’s.

Finally, he stepped back and settled himself in his own chair once more. “Well, if you won’t join in, I hope you won’t mind if some of your men do. I know that the former Stormtrooper, for one, has volunteered, and I’m sure there are others who will join when they know the nature of the mission.”

Poe’s hands curled tightly into fists as he tried to contain his rage. This was an obvious ploy to draw the Resistance fighters one-by-one into the First Order. Hux had cooked up a story he knew would appeal to the idealists in his ranks, and then had gone behind Poe’s back and recruited his men without his permission. This was an attempt to dissolve their loyalty to him. To Leia. 

But just as Poe was about to spring himself on the taller man, Hux pressed a button on his desk and the door opened, cuing the Stormtroopers who had been standing watch outside to grab firmly at Poe’s elbows and lead him out. As he was being ushered away, Hux added, almost as an afterthought, “I’m sure you’ll want to be kept informed on the status of this…excursion. I expect it will be carried out sometime within the week.” Poe saw Hux raise an eyebrow, in what almost seemed like a gloat, before the door closed and he was led away.

***

The saberstaff’s blade sang as she worked through some basic staff exercises, and Rey thought she had never heard a lovelier sound.

After hours spent poring over metal housing and wires and aligning the crystals just right - often with Ben by her side, guiding or simply providing a second pair of eyes and Force feeling - her new saber was complete. Ben had told her that crystals used by Jedi usually turned blue or green when used in a lightsaber, so she had been stunned when she finally turned her saber on and the blades were a blinding white. Ben had bit his lip, and had refused to tell her his theories about what it could possibly mean. 

But her initial frustration had dissolved when she had brought it into her training room and tried it out for the first time. The sheer pleasure of using this blade, so attuned to her needs and movement, was almost overwhelming. She sighed as she brought it in a wide arc over her head and allowed its double blades to come to a perfectly horizontal stop directly in front of her.

She heard the door to the training room open, and quiet footsteps walk onto the mats. The Grasshoppers had left a few hours earlier, so it could only be one person.

“Ben,” she whispered, as he came to stand behind her and placed a hand on the arm that was holding her saber steady in front of her.

He leaned forward, and when he spoke, his breath tickled her ear. “Would you like to try it out against a real opponent?”

When she spun around, she found herself almost in his arms, and for a moment, all she wanted to do was breathe him in. But she was here to train, not lounge around, so she looked up into his eyes and nodded, before withdrawing into an opening stance. He unclipped his saber from his belt, ignited it, and fell into a stance that mirrored hers.

As they circled each other, she could see the intensity in his gaze just as she had the last time the had fought. But this time, she knew he wasn’t trying to hurt her, and so she attacked, eager to test out her new weapon against someone whose skills rivaled her own.

He sidestepped her lunge easily, and countered with his own attack. 

This felt so much more natural to her than their fight in the forest had, now that her saber resembled the weapon she had used all her life. She could see the pride in his eyes as he watched her use tricks she had taken from him as well as her own moves she had honed in life-or-death struggles with other scavengers on Jakku.

Then, he allowed her an opening and she took it, pushing him back until he hit the wall and they paused, both panting heavily. 

She could see the moment when, trapped against her blade, his fighting instinct kicked in. His face hardened, and he let out a low growl, turning his saber so he was now on the offensive. Suddenly, the stakes had become much higher, and Rey found herself fighting for breath as he pushed her back toward the other side of the room.

When they reached the other wall, she looked up into his eyes and saw in them that same ferocity they had held when he had cornered her on the edge of the cliff on Starkiller. She saw none of Ben’s warm affection in the eyes of the cold fighter above her. If she went for his saber arm… she shook her head. This was still Ben, not some faceless enemy, and even in this moment of pure adrenaline and survival instinct, Rey knew she couldn’t hurt him.

She deactivated her saber and let her hands fall to her sides, watching for his next move.

***

When Kylo saw fear briefly skitter across Rey’s face, it pulled him violently out of the fighting trance he had sunk into. And the moment she lowered her saber arm, shame and self-loathing hit him hard. He cursed and let his saber arm fall as well, turning away from her and giving her room to move away from him. As she should - he was nothing but a monster, after all.

She didn’t move. 

After a moment, he bit out, “This was a bad idea. You should go.” He couldn’t bear to look at her. He didn’t want to see fear or even pity in her eyes. 

They stood for a long moment in silence, until he finally couldn’t stop himself from speaking aloud what was torturing him. “You still see me as a monster.”

She didn’t deny it, and that was all the answer he needed. The only sound she made was her breathing, still heavy from their skirmish.

“Then why let me train with your padawans? Why let me spend time with you? You don’t trust me, and I can’t blame you.” He sighed, resting his fist against the wall above her head as his lightsaber dangled in his other hand. 

This was why he didn’t deserve her. Because every time he tried to do something good, he ended up destroying it. Maybe he should just let her and her friends go back to being the Resistance, his enemies. Maybe he should return to ruling his paper empire in the cold solitude that had reigned before Rey had arrived and shone light into every corner of his dark, pathetic existence.

Then she finally spoke. “I don’t know. I should fear you, and hate you, and be searching for every possible opportunity to escape. But I’m not, am I?”

He looked at her then, and the tenderness he found in her eyes was almost overwhelming. He knew he shouldn’t touch her, and yet he couldn’t restrain himself - he placed a tentative hand on her cheek, wanting to feel her warmth even against his gloved hand.

She leaned into his touch, then placed her own deceptively fragile little hand on his neck and pulled his face down to hers. Her lips met his, and for a moment he was completely lost in the feeling of Rey.

Then she pulled away, and the realization of what she had just done seemed to hit her suddenly. Her eyes widened, and she flinched away from him, ducking under his arm to escape him, and whatever emotions he had just stirred in her.

He stood there for several minutes after she had left the room, exerting all of his effort to stop himself from shouting or crying or destroying things to numb the tremendous sense of loss he felt. Finally, when he thought he was composed enough to return to his quarters, he left the training room, feeling that every step he took away from her was horribly wrong.

***

During the walk from her cell to the training room, Rose could still find ways to rationalize this to herself. This was an elaborate ruse to infiltrate the First Order; this was a way to fight back against her captors. The constant presence of her Stormtrooper escort walking a step behind her certainly made it easier to think of them as her antagonists. Even as she donned the white armor in the changing room, it didn’t feel so dissimilar from when she and Finn had disguised themselves as officers on the Supremacy.

But when she walked out onto the floor of the training room, her helmet in one hand, and one of the soldiers from her escort, now helmetless, handed her a blaster, a wave of nausea hit her. She was helping the people who had taken her whole family from her, who had killed her beloved sister, whom she had despised her whole life. She was training with them. She was going to go on a mission with them. What would Paige think if she could see her sister now?

Finn approached her from the other side of the room, and his expression told her he knew exactly how uneasy she felt. He clapped a hand on her back that she knew was meant to be reassuring, but she still had to fight the urge to push him away. She had promised to give this a chance, and she would keep her word, as difficult as it might be.

She was saved from having to say anything to him because at that moment, a very tall, blonde woman walked over and offered her hand to Rose. Despite herself, Rose found herself taking it.

“Lieutenant Tico.” Rose was startled by the address: although that was now her rank within the Resistance, everyone was on a first-name basis, and she didn’t think anyone had ever called her anything other than Rose. The woman - who must be Phasma - continued, “We’re pleased you decided to train with us. Captain…Finn…” Rose stifled a laugh - the name was clearly still awkward for her - “tells me you’re good with a blaster. Would you care to demonstrate?”

Rose knew she should have felt irked by the way this woman had already begun acting as if she were her commanding officer, yet it felt natural to follow her instructions. Rose moved toward the targets that had been set up on one side of the room and stopped at the yellow line that had been painted on the floor.

After firing off several blasts, she paused and looked over at Phasma. Her shots had all landed close to the center, although only one had been an actual bullseye. Pretty good, considering she had been locked in a cell for several weeks with no real physical activity.

Phasma nodded, then motioned to the other members of their group to take their places and begin sparring drills.

***

On the one hand, Finn was glad that Phasma had paired him with Rose for sparring. He knew it would have been an even more unpleasant shock for her to train with a Stormtrooper who hadn’t defected - it was strange enough for her just to be in the room with First Order personnel and not be actively trying to kill them. But he also had to admit it wasn’t a great deal for him: from the way she wasn’t pulling any punches, it was clear that she still hadn’t forgiven him for their fight the other day, and he knew he would have several bruises to show for it.

When Phasma finally called out for a breather and they both went for their canteens, Finn took the opportunity to study his partner’s face. He had often wondered if she would ever talk about the kiss she had given him on Crait, but she never did. He had sometimes even thought about bringing it up himself, but every time he considered the idea, it felt like he was somehow betraying their friendship with Rey, so he let it drop. Looking at her now, he wondered if that had been a mistake.

He knew that joining this mission was an enormous challenge for her. While he could sink back into his Stormtrooper training, every moment of this must feel wrong to someone who had grown up seeing Stormtroopers as the enforcing arm of the First Order’s evil plans. But now that those plans might not be so evil anymore… 

He shook the thought away as Phasma summoned their group over to one corner of the room, where she had set up a holo that showed a rocky landscape and what looked like a cave entrance. Rose came over to stand next to him, and they leaned in closer to get a better look.

“Our target,” Phasma began, “is the cartel leader we’ve located here on Chalcedon. The higher reaches of this organization are shadowy, so our objective here is twofold: to disrupt the cartel’s operations in this system and to gain information that will help us locate the top leaders of this cartel and take them out.” She pointed at the cave entrance in the holo. “Our main division will start with a frontal attack, and other divisions will go around to other entrances to ensure that no one escapes.”

She looked up at the group, making eye contact with each one of them individually. Beside him Finn felt Rose hold her chin up and he knew she was meeting the colonel’s gaze boldly. 

Then Phasma continued. “Once the first teams have cleared the entrance, our team will go in and seek out the leaders, who we believe will move to some kind of safe room inside the complex when the fighting begins. Our goal is to dismantle any defense they mount and get them out alive so they can be interrogated.”

One of the Stormtroopers looked at Phasma and asked, “Colonel, how will we locate the safe room? I’m assuming it will be well hidden.”

Finn’s jaw nearly dropped at the Stormtrooper’s question. He had never dared to ask Phasma a question - no one had. But Phasma merely nodded, as if she were carefully considering the problem.

“We will have two Force users with our team. The Supreme Leader has assured me that he and his partner will be able to detect lifeforms within even the deepest recesses of the cave system.”

Two Force users. The Supreme Leader and his partner. There was no one else Phasma could possibly be referring to. Rey was coming along on this mission. 

No matter how many times Finn had asked, no one had allowed him to see Rey since he had arrived on the Finalizer. He now tried to fight down the emotions that were bubbling up: relief that he would be seeing her again, resentment that she had apparently become Kylo Ren’s plaything - although whether his resentment was directed at Rey or at the Supreme Leader himself, Finn wasn’t sure. 

But Phasma was still speaking, so he returned his attention to her. “And that’s our second objective. It is imperative that we keep the two Force users safe during this mission. The Supreme Leader has assured me that they can defend themselves, but in close quarters fighting, I don’t want to take any chances.”

Finn shot a look at Rose as Phasma outlined the plan of attack. She met his eyes, and nodded, and the message was clear - she knew the importance of this mission, and she would protect Rey with her life, if need be.

***

After she retreated to her bedroom that night, Ben’s lips still ghosting over her own, Rey turned over and over in her head what she would say to him when he arrived for meditation the next morning. Should she apologize? Demand an apology from him? Pretend nothing had happened? Kiss him again?

At that thought, she felt herself grow uncomfortably warm, and wondered whether he might show up unexpectedly through their Force bond as he had the other night. But he didn’t, and she fell asleep feeling an uncomfortable need she didn’t quite want to let herself acknowledge.

As it turned out, she needn’t have worried - he didn’t show up at all. Not as the Grasshoppers were meditating. Not as she led them through Form 1 and into their sparring drills, nor as she partnered with Riya so that Alec could help Ara through her forms. 

Riya had grown into an exceptional swordswoman over the last few weeks they had been working with lightsabers. Rey knew that she had grown up being trained in several forms of fighting, so the girl’s growth wasn’t surprising, but sparring with her always left Rey winded.

At one point Rey paused to catch her breath, and Riya moved closer to her teacher, a curious expression on her face. “Mistress Rey, I’m surprised to see Master Ben hasn’t joined us today.”

Rey could immediately feel her cheeks growing hot. “Perhaps he has…other duties.” She tried to make her tone firm, to signal an end to the conversation.

“Hm,” Riya said, her voice a little too knowing. “Perhaps.”

Rey scowled. Served her right for taking on such astute students.

Finally, as they were finishing up their drills deflecting blaster bolts shot by droid opponents, Rey noticed Ben’s presence in the doorway and felt her heart begin to race. She looked up, and he gestured to her to come to him.

They stood immediately outside the doorway so Rey could keep an eye on her students, but even his presence looming over her made her breath catch. He spoke close to her ear, the proximity of his face to hers sending memories of last night flooding over her.

“Rey, I wanted to ask you - this is your choice, but I thought you would want to be a part of this.” He cleared his throat. “I asked Hux to track down the criminals who were responsible for Hien’s…” 

He made a vague gesture, and Rey grasped his hand, wanting him to go on. 

He swallowed, then continued. “…For the brothel we found. We don’t know where the top leaders are hiding out, but we found some local bosses in a cave complex on Chalcedon. We want to get them out alive so we can get information out of them, and it will be much cleaner with the two of us there using the Force to locate them.”

Rey cut him off by grabbing his other hand. “Yes. Yes, I’ll go. When do we leave?”


	6. Cave

With their helmets on, Finn and Rose looked just like all the other Stormtroopers in the hangar who were marching onto various transports to make the short jump to Chalcedon. Finn looked over at Rose, but she was facing forward, intent on the Stormtrooper ahead of her. Apparently she didn’t want to think very much about where she was going and why. He understood the feeling.

As they marched onto the transport their team would take, Finn tried to catch a glimpse of Rey, but there was no sign of her anywhere in the hangar. She was probably already on board, in the upper cabin where the officers usually traveled. He felt a pang of disappointment: even now, when they were on the same mission, they still wouldn’t get the chance to talk. She probably wouldn’t even know he was on her team, since he would be wearing his helmet the whole time.

As the transport left the hangar and entered hyperspace, Finn reflected on how strange it felt to be on a mission for the First Order again. On his first mission as a Stormtrooper, he had decided not to kill for them. Now, knowing what was at stake on this mission, he had no qualms about doing what was necessary to keep his friends safe and take these bastards down.

***

Poe had never been on the bridge of a star destroyer, and he couldn’t help gaping a little as he followed Hux to the viewport on the upper level. Hux pulled up a holo so they could watch the mission unfold from the Finalizer, which would stay out of Chalcedon’s airspace so as not to alert the cartel to their arrival. 

Hux had said relatively little as he escorted Poe here, and Poe couldn’t help but wonder why the general had even bothered to include him. Was this all an elaborate way to gloat about the fact that Poe’s fighters were helping the First Order? Poe examined Hux’s face across the holo, and he didn’t see any signs of his smugness from the other evening - all he could see was an intense focus on the action that was unfolding in front of them.

“General, if you’ll look over here, we should be seeing the first transports land at any moment,” Hux announced, and indeed, as they watched, little holos of ships landed a short distance from the cave entrance. The first troops streamed out of the transports, and from what Poe could see, it looked like they were setting up some sort of explosive device in front of the heavy door. The tiny soldiers moved away from the door, and then suddenly smoke was pouring out of the opening. The bomb must have gone off.

They watched in silence as the First Order troops exchanged blaster fire with unseen fighters at the cave entrance, most of the figures on both sides obscured by the smoke. They could see troops guarding other entrances, some ambushing fighters who were trying to escape.

As the fighting at the front entrance began to clear, they saw a small division - twelve or fifteen troops at most - approach the cave. They were accompanied by two figures in long, flowing robes, so Poe assumed that this must be Finn and Rose’s team. They quickly disappeared within the cave entrance. 

Poe looked up to meet Hux’s eyes and was surprised to see that the general’s expression was tense. It almost seemed as though Hux was worried for this team’s welfare. That didn’t seem at all in character with the stories he had heard of Hux clashing with Ren and vying with him for power. Interesting.

Poe turned back to the holo, his eyes focused on the cave entrance. Even if he wasn’t commanding this mission and his fighters had joined up without his permission, he was still responsible for them. Hux gave him a knowing look, then returned his own attention to the scene in the holo.

***

It was dark inside the cave. Once they had passed through the opulent audience chambers and living quarters in the front part of the cave - funded by slave trading, Rey thought bitterly - they found themselves in unchanging rocky corridors with no apparent end in sight. Rey moved forward with her eyes shut and her saberstaff held in front of her, feeling the people and objects around her with the Force. She knew that, beside her, Ben was doing the same. 

There had still been some fighting near the entrance when they arrived, but thanks to Rey and Ben deflecting blaster fire on either side of their group, they had made it through unscathed. Now they were wandering through the cave complex, feeling for the leaders who had presumably hidden at the first sign of fighting. Leaders who would know how to find the lowlifes who had profited from hurting Hien.

Suddenly, Rey felt several Force signatures within the walls to her left. She looked over at Ben, and she could tell that he felt it too.

“Here,” he announced, and the two of them felt at the wall for some kind of opening. Her fingers found a switch, and a stone door that had been well camouflaged slid open.

They were immediately greeted by blaster fire. Their team retreated down the corridor, out of the way of the assault, only to find themselves facing close-range fighters who spread out in front of them.

Rey and Ben, still standing side-by-side, focused on deflecting the blaster fire coming from the door so their team could take down the fighters in front of them. But one opponent, apparently noticing what they were doing, lunged toward them, his pike pointed directly at Ben’s chest. 

Without hesitating, Rey lunged toward the burly man, her saberstaff slicing through the handle of his pike and pinning him to the wall just as a crackling red saber came from behind her to finish the man off.

As Rey turned back to rejoin the fighting, pain suddenly seared through her thigh and she screamed. When she reached down to feel the injury, her hand came back covered in red. Kriff. The man must have clipped her with his pike before she took him down.

Rey felt her knees buckle, just as strong arms came up to support her from behind. “Rey, you’re hurt!” The panic was obvious in Ben’s voice.

“I’m fine,” she ground out. “Gotta get those bastards. Let me go!” Ben was holding her against his chest now, preventing her from moving forward. She felt his hand move down to inspect her thigh, and heard him curse as he must have felt the blood seeping out of the wound.

He grunted. “Rey, I’m taking you back to the transport. You need medical help or you’re going to bleed out.”

She didn’t need medical help. She needed to get those bastards. She didn’t remember why, but she needed to get them. Ben was keeping her from getting them. “Let go of me!” she screamed, still trying to move forward. “I need to get them. Now!”

She felt Ben tighten his hold on her, and then everything went black.

***

When Finn saw Rey engage the pike fighter, he immediately moved to cover her. From there, he saw her collapse against Kylo Ren’s chest, argue with him, then finally pass out as Kylo Ren picked her up and held her in his arms, exactly as Finn had seen the knight do when he had kidnapped her back on Takodana.

“Did you just knock her out?” Finn couldn’t keep the anger from his voice.

Kylo Ren leveled his gaze at Finn. Finn couldn’t help shivering slightly as the larger man focused on him. He wondered if the larger man knew who Finn was, even through his Stormtrooper helmet. “She was delirious. She needs medical help immediately, and I can’t have her fighting me while I take her back to the ship.”

Then he turned to carry Rey away from him, down the passage that led to the cave’s entrance.

Finn heard a voice at his side. “He’s not going to be able to protect the two of them while he’s carrying her, Finn. Cover them.”

He turned to face his companion. “It’s my duty to stay here until we’ve cleared this hiding spot. I can’t leave my post.”

Her helmet didn’t disguise the fierce conviction in Rose’s voice. “It’s also our duty to keep those two safe. I can help Phasma clear the cave. They need your blaster down there.” She apparently sensed that he was about to argue, so she gave him a shove and turned to follow Phasma into the room they had just opened up.

Awe for this woman blossomed in Finn’s chest. For as much as she hated the First Order and everything they did, Rose was willing to take his place on this mission and work with one of their leaders just so he could stay with Rey and keep her safe. And she probably knew that, if he wasn’t with Rey, he would be worrying about her and possibly compromising their mission. He sighed - Rose probably knew him too well.

Seeing that the rest of his team had moved into the hiding space, Finn turned and ran down the passage after Kylo Ren, his blaster at the ready.

***

When the tiny cloaked figure emerged from the cave holding another figure in his arms, both of them trailed by a Stormtrooper, Poe stalked around the holo to yell at Hux.

“What in kriffing hell, Hugs! You were supposed to keep her safe!”

Hux gripped Poe’s shoulders, holding him still. The sudden contact was unexpected, and Poe, despite himself, felt a thrill run through his body at the touch. Hux’s eyes, infuriatingly calm in the face of Poe’s anger, held his for a long moment before the redhead released him.

“Are you quite done with that display, General?”

Poe glared at Hux defiantly for a moment, but he reminded himself that his fighters’ - in this case, Rey’s - safety was his first priority, and nothing would be accomplished by shouting at Hux. Finally, he nodded.

Hux continued. “It appears that the Supreme Leader has the situation under control. I assume we will hear from him once they’re aboard his transport. Now, will you watch the rest of the transmission without any further outbursts, or should I have you escorted back to your room?”

This was one of Hux’s great skills, Poe was quickly learning - treating his opponent like a child and shaming them into complaisance. Apparently it worked on him, since Poe simply replied, “I’ll stay,” and turned back to the holo.

As more tiny figures emerged from the cave, Poe noticed that Hux was watching each one carefully as if he were scanning their ranks for someone. Finally, after most of the First Order troops had already made their way out, a tall figure in silver armor appeared, accompanied by a very short Stormtrooper and two moving shapes that Poe assumed were prisoners. 

Poe could hear Hux let out a soft breath next to him. Had he really been concerned for the safety of someone in this party? Poe looked up at Hux with curiosity, although the general didn’t seem to be paying attention to him. He looked back at the tall figure - another puzzle piece falling into place. Perhaps this information would end up being useful at some point.

Hux’s comm link beeped. He read the message, then turned to Poe. “The Supreme Leader’s transport will be landing shortly. He will be escorting your friend to the med bay. Apparently she’s lost blood but is in stable condition. She’s unconscious at the moment.”

Poe looked back at Hux, nodded and said, “Take me there.” 

***

When Rey awoke, she was in what felt like a hospital bed, and several blurry faces were staring down at her.

“She’s awake!” a small voice shrieked, and she felt small arms encircling her neck. 

She smiled, and croaked out, “Ara? Why are you here? Where am I?”

“You’re in the med bay,” Riya’s serious voice responded, and her head slowly swam into Rey’s field of vision. “You lost a lot of blood. Master Ben brought you back here a few hours ago.”

Rey felt Ara’s arms gently pulled from her neck. Alec’s calm voice insisted, “Ara, let Mistress Rey have some space. She just woke up, and she probably wants to see Finn and Poe and Rose.”

Finn? Poe? Rose? Rey’s heart began to race. She hadn’t seen them since she had been taken aboard the Finalizer weeks ago. Were they alright? Had they been treated well?

Before she could ask any of the questions that were bouncing around her head, she felt strong arms circle her shoulders, and someone adjusted the hospital bed so she could sit closer to upright. “Rey, you’re alright! Force, we were so worried!”

“Finn!” she squeaked, reaching over to hug him properly. “They let you see me!”

She looked up into his face, and his eyes were serious. “They couldn’t stop me. Rose and I were on that mission with you, although…” his lips quirked up into a smile, “you wouldn’t have recognized us since we were wearing Stormtrooper armor.”

Rey’s eyes went wide. Finn and Rose had been with them the whole time? She was surprised she hadn’t felt them in the Force, although she had been very focused on the mission’s objective, to the exclusion of everything else around her.

She felt a smaller body settle in at her other side, and Rose smoothed back her hair before adding in an even voice, “You were hurt pretty badly. Kylo Ren carried you back to the transport.”

Before she could digest that piece of information, a loud, unmistakable voice declared, “Look who’s up! We got you some dessert!”

Rey had to laugh. Of course Poe would insist on coming with food.

As she hugged her friends, Rey finally glanced around the room. In one corner, talking quietly with each other, stood a tall redheaded man and an even taller blonde woman Rey had never seen before. They looked over at her briefly and nodded, before returning to their conversation.

In the other corner, Ben stood stiffly, a worried expression on his face. Rey smiled at him, and the corner of his mouth quirked up, making her shiver with the heat of his gaze.


	7. Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some Gingerpilot coming up in this chapter and the next, so feel free to skip those parts if it's not your thing. 
> 
> Also fluff. Lots of fluff.

“Kriff, why is everyone around here out of their minds?” Finn breathed, leaning his head into his hands in frustration. He looked over at Rose, who had glanced up from her datapad at his outburst.

While the embargo on seeing both Rey and Poe had been quickly reinstated after their med bay visit, daily chats with Rose were apparently acceptable to their captors. Although they often just sat quietly together, it was nice to have contact with another person outside their training hours with Phasma.

“This is about Rey, isn’t it?” Rose lifted an eyebrow.

Finn sighed. Sometimes he wished Rose weren’t quite so aware of everything that was going on in his head.

Rose scooted forward so she was sitting on the end of her bed, and gently took Finn’s hands in her own. “I think we both know that not even the First Order can make Rey do anything against her will. So, whatever’s happening between her and Kylo Ren, she’s OK with it. And if she’s OK with it, then as her friends, I think we have to be OK with it, too.”

Finn shook his head in consternation. “Kylo Ren’s her enemy. He has been ever since we fought him on Starkiller. Why is she suddenly willing to work with him?”

Rose laughed softly, her hands still holding Finn’s. “I don’t think Kylo Ren has ever been Rey’s enemy.”

Finn looked at Rose sharply. “You know something you haven’t told me,” he accused.

Rose shrugged. “Call it a hunch, mostly. I will say, though… I don’t think Rey saw me, but once, a few weeks after Leia’s funeral, I saw her speaking to someone who wasn’t there. And she didn’t look angry.”

Finn stared at Rose, immediately concerned. “You’re telling me Rey’s going crazy?”

Rose laughed. “No! She’s a Force user, Finn. I think she has some kind of connection with Kylo Ren. And whatever their relationship is, we’re definitely not seeing the whole picture.”

Finn released his hands from Rose’s grip and stood, running his hands along his scalp in frustration. He thought that he and Rey were good friends, but now it seemed like there was so much about her he didn’t know. A secret Force connection with Kylo Ren, of all people? The monster who had almost killed him on Starkiller? What else was she hiding?

As always, Rose seemed to know exactly what he was thinking, and she stood and wrapped her arms around him from behind, her smaller body feeding warmth into his. He leaned back into her touch and sighed, feeling suddenly grateful that Rose wasn’t angry with him right now.

“Finn, Rey is our friend. But she’s also a powerful Force user, and that’s a part of her we’ll never really understand. It makes sense that she would connect with someone who shares that with her, even if we don't understand that connection.”

“So what do we do about it?”

Finn felt Rose take a deep breath behind him, and he wondered briefly whether she was taking as much comfort from their contact as he was. “I don’t think we do anything. I think we support her, we help her if she asks for it, and we continue to work toward bringing peace to the galaxy.”

Finn huffed out a laugh. “Does that mean you’re joining Phasma’s team for good?”

He could feel Rose grumble into his back. “I haven’t decided yet. Ask me again when we figure out what these kriffing bastards are actually up to.”

They stood there for a few minutes then without talking, each of them just enjoying the other’s closeness. Even if he didn’t really understand Rey, Finn realized he was lucky to have someone who so completely understood him.

***

After he had lost control during their duel, Kylo had told himself he wouldn’t join Rey’s training sessions anymore. If he ever lost his head while sparring with one of Rey’s students… he shivered at the thought. He couldn’t even imagine trying to face Rey after he had hurt one of her Grasshoppers.

But after her friends had left the med bay and the two of them were alone, Rey had gestured for him to come to her bedside. She had told him she wanted him to help her get back into training her Grasshoppers, and the way she had asked him, with a slight smile on her lips, he had been helpless to resist.

He had been even more helpless when, pleased that he had agreed, she gently pulled him down so she could kiss her cheek. His legs had felt like rubber for a long time after he left the med bay that night.

So he showed up the next morning and took up his usual post at the back of the training room for their daily meditation exercises. Rey flashed him a tiny smile before closing her eyes again. Apparently the bacta treatment had been effective - he couldn’t feel any pain emanating from her Force signature this morning, the way he had on Chalcedon.

Ara immediately crawled into Kylo’s lap, and he had to smile at how quickly the younger children were absorbing some of Rey’s forceful personality. The twins had placed themselves on either side of Rey, leaning against her while they concentrated hard on keeping their eyes closed. Only Riya and Alec were sitting peacefully on their own, each apparently deep in meditation. Hien, as usual, was sitting in the corner of the room, her wide eyes shifting to each person in turn, the fear and mistrust still apparent in her gaze and body language. This was Rey’s little family, and somehow she had allowed him to join it. Accepting the gift for what it was, Kylo allowed himself to sink into meditation, the calm waves of the Force washing over him and steadying him.

Only Rey standing directly above him pulled him out of his trance. Ara had already crawled away and was running through her opening drills with the other students. He blinked up at her.

“Ben, will you spar with Riya today? She’s advancing beyond what I’ve taught the others, and I think working with you would help her grow. And I’d like to spend some time working with Alec today, since he’s been helping Ara so much and hasn’t really been able to work on his own form.”

He was about to refuse outright - he had almost hurt her, how could he possibly work with her young students? - but the look of absolute trust and confidence in her eyes swayed him. He tried a weak protest. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” he murmured, and she nodded firmly, a small smile on her face. He nodded back, then slowly rose to retrieve his saber.

As he squared off against the much shorter girl, he realized that he had never interacted much with Rey’s older students. They were always either working directly with her or chasing after the younger students. He studied the girl - young woman, really - in front of him, her face set in a serious but calm expression as she prepared to spar with him. He almost laughed - he had thought she might be intimidated, fighting against someone of his size, but she seemed completely composed.

They began, and her talent with the blade was immediately apparent. She was fast and nimble, perhaps even faster than Rey, but her swings had real power behind them, more than he would expect from someone her size. He carefully kept himself calm and focused as he had learned from Luke, stifling the temptation to draw from the Dark Side as he had grown so used to doing under Snoke. Without the extra power he usually called on in duels, the small padawan quickly had Kylo out of breath.

When Rey finally called a stop, Kylo looked at Riya with curiosity. “Where did you learn to fight like that? You haven’t been training with Rey long enough to acquire that kind of skill.”

Riya shot him a defiant look, much bolder than anyone besides Rey had given him since he became the Supreme Leader. It was clear this girl knew who he was, so he was impressed by her fearlessness - or perhaps folly. “My family are traders on a planet without much…protection. I had to learn to fight from a young age to defend our business.”

Kylo’s respect for the girl immediately grew, and he wondered how she had ended up with Rey. But there was no chance to ask her, because Rey was now summoning the students back to the center of the room to resume their meditation stances and stack the pebbles that she placed in front of each of them. Kylo almost laughed - for all that Rey said she was rejecting the traditions of the Jedi, she certainly used a lot of their training exercises.

As the younger students concentrated hard to lift a single pebble, sometimes dropping it and making noises of frustration, and Riya slowly assembled her stack with a look of intense concentration on her face, he looked over at where Alec was sitting, surprised to find that Rey had placed much larger rocks in front of him. This was the first time Kylo had witnessed this particular exercise, and he shot Rey a curious look. She grinned back at him as they watched Alec stack the larger rocks without any apparent difficulty, all while he himself hovered a foot off the floor of the training room.

Kylo hung back after Rey dismissed her students, and she motioned for him to sit next to him on her couch. They sat facing one another, their bodies close but not touching, as if they were both afraid of too much proximity.

“Rey, where did you find these children?”

She laughed softly. “This is the first time you’ve really paid attention to what they can do, isn’t it?”

He nodded, waiting for her to go on.

She did, her eyes wandering down to where her hands were clasped in her lap. “Riya comes from a planet that is deeply suspicious of Force users, and as you might imagine, she’s powerful enough that her abilities began to appear at a young age. Her family did not… respond well. She had heard the stories about Crait…” Rey trailed off, her eyes meeting his uncertainly. 

He had heard about her rock lifting feat through his own sources, and although at the time he had been annoyed that it had allowed the Resistance to escape, he had also been deeply impressed. He nodded, signaling for her to continue.

“She heard about me, and came to the Resistance, and so she became my first student. Alec arrived a little after Riya did.” Here, Rey’s expression hardened into one of defiance. “His family had been killed in a First Order weapons trial. You met Rose in the med bay - that was what happened to her family, too.”

Kylo shuddered. Now, in this time of relative peace, he sometimes forgot the extent of Snoke’s cruelty - and his own, if he was being honest with himself.

After a brief pause, Rey continued. “Once I started working with Riya and Alec, I realized there must be other Force sensitive children out there in need of training, so I started seeking them out. I found Ara first - her family actually agreed to let me train her, and I can only hope that was the right choice. The twins, I found in an orphanage, and, well, you know about Hien.” She looked into his eyes sadly, and he found himself putting his arm around her shoulders.

“You’re a good teacher, Rey. Your students are powerful, and you’re helping them gain control of their abilities.”

She sighed. “I hope so. It’s a lot of responsibility, and I’m always afraid I’m doing the wrong thing.”

He pulled her closer against his side and kissed the top of her head. Then he moved to stand. “You should get some rest.”

But Rey grasped his hand and pulled him back down beside her. “Ben, will you stay with me tonight?”

He didn’t think he had ever wanted to agree with something as much as he did this, but he forced himself to shake his head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Rey.”

She leaned her head against him and spoke into his neck. “Just stay with me. We won’t… I just don’t want to sleep alone.”

He ruffled his hand through her hair. “Rey, you got hurt because of me. I… you know I want to be around you, but I’m not sure it’s the right thing for you.”

She looked up at him sharply. “Ben, I took that hit because I would rather get hurt than lose you. You didn’t hurt me - I was the one who decided to put myself at risk. It’s not fair to you or to me to blame yourself for something I chose. And right now I’m making another choice that I think is right for me. If you don’t want to sleep with me, then don’t, but don’t leave just because of some misguided idea you have of protecting me. That’s kriffing insulting.”

The fierceness in her eyes nearly knocked him over. How could he resist this?

So he placed a soft kiss on her forehead and gathered her up in his arms. As he carried her toward her bedroom, she laughed and slapped lightly at his arms. “Ben, you idiot, I’m not some delicate princess you have to carry around everywhere!”

In response he chuckled and held her closer to his chest, nuzzling his nose against her temple. “I know you’re not. But will you allow a man to briefly indulge the woman he’s taking to bed?”

The smile she gave him as he laid her down on her bed was so radiant, it seemed to melt his insides. He gently tugged off her boots and placed them on the floor next to the bed before kicking off his own. Then, wrapping his body around her smaller one, he let his mind drift away into sleep.

***

When Hux came out onto the floor of the training room stripped of his greatcoat and full uniform, wearing a black tank top and tight black pants, Poe had to admit it was not an unpleasant view. The man was much skinnier and less imposing without the full uniform, but his muscles were clearly defined - apparently he hadn’t allowed command to make him soft.

Poe himself had stripped down to a light-colored tank top and training pants, and he was stretching out when he flashed a grin at Hux. Even if he was half a head shorter, Poe was definitely bulkier, and he looked forward to finally getting the chance to gain the upper hand over the First Order general after so many encounters where he was at a disadvantage.

Hux had unexpectedly appeared in Poe’s cell that afternoon and offered him the opportunity to train. Although Poe had been suspicious of the general’s motives, as always, the chance to leave his cell and go somewhere other than Hux’s office - and to exercise in an area larger than his tiny room - was too good to pass up. So here they were, about to face off, and Poe could feel the adrenaline rushing through him.

He smirked. “Ready, Hugs?”

Hux took an opening stance. “Rules?”

Poe shook his head and chuckled. Of course Hux had to set rules, even for an informal training exercise. “Winner pins his opponent to the ground and holds him for 10 seconds. When I win, I want a full hour with the Resistance member of my choice.” If Hux wanted to spar with him, then he might as well get something out of it.

“And if I win, General?” The corner of Hux’s lip was turned up, as if he were amused.

Poe thought for a moment, then responded, “I join your next mission.”

“Very well.” Hux stuck his hand out, and Poe shook it. Then they separated, shook hands, and lunged at each other.

Poe immediately saw that Hux was a good fighter. He used his height to his advantage, throwing Poe off balance several times, although Poe was able to use his bulk to throw Hux around as well. They were both quick to anticipate the other’s moves and block them, so neither of them ended up landing many punches. When Poe tried to land a kick, Hux frowned. Apparently that violated his rules of fair fighting. Good. It was always satisfying to find some new way to irk the general.

They had been sparring for a while, and both of them had worked up a good sweat when Poe saw an opening and stuck his foot out to trip Hux. The redhead went down, and Poe held him, using his weight to keep Hux from pushing him off. He counted out loud, and smirked when he reached ten.

“I won, Hugs,” Poe announced with pride, keeping Hux pinned firmly under him .

Hux grimaced. “That doesn’t count. You weren’t fighting fair.”

Poe lifted an eyebrow. “Who says? We never said ‘no tripping’ in the rules we set.”

“A gentleman follows the rules of engagement.”

“Who said I was a gentleman?”

Suddenly, Poe became aware of the way his body was pressed up against Hux’s, and how parts of them were touching through their thin training clothes. By the way the redhead’s breath hitched, Poe could tell Hux had noticed it, too.

Before he could tell himself why it was a bad idea, Poe moved his hands to either side of Hux’s face and pressed his lips firmly against the general’s.

Poe assumed Hux would push him away, so it sent a chill through him when instead, the redhead moaned and pulled him closer, moving his lips against Poe’s. Poe bit Hux’s lip lightly and the general opened his mouth, allowing Poe’s tongue to press inside and meet his. Poe could feel Hux’s erection pressing into his thigh, as he knew his own must be making its presence known on Hux’s stomach.

After a moment, Poe pulled away to look at Hux. “Kriff,” he muttered, noticing how Hux’s lips were swollen from kissing. This was his enemy, the man he had been trying to defeat for years, and here he was lusting after him like a lovesick teenager.

Hux quickly recovered his usual calculating glare, and he pushed Poe off him - with less force than Poe might have expected - so he could sit. “Well, that was unexpected,” Hux announced, his eyes never leaving Poe’s.

Poe bit out a laugh. “You might say that.”

They sat on the floor of the training room in silence for several minutes, neither one moving away. Poe assumed that Hux was doing exactly what he was - trying to figure out whether this liaison might end up benefitting him in some way in the future.

Apparently the First Order general decided that it might, since when he rose, he offered Poe his ungloved hand and pulled him up to stand much closer than necessary. He ran his fingers slowly down Poe’s cheek before murmuring, “Perhaps this is a less than ideal location for whatever you seem to have in mind, General Dameron. May I suggest my quarters instead?”

***

Rey woke with her face pressed into Ben’s chest, feeling his slow breathing against her hair. It wasn’t so different from the times their Force bond had connected them in sleep, but in real life she could smell him, and his warmth filled her completely.

It felt so right that she had to remind herself that she still didn’t trust the First Order; that he was still holding her captive, even if she wasn’t making much of an effort to get away; and that she still wasn’t completely sure that he had really left his Dark Side tendencies behind him on the floor of that abandoned Resistance bunker on Crait.

But his vulnerability - last night as he had warred with his guilt and insecurities to finally allow himself to hold her, and now, as he slept - was so enticing, she found that she couldn’t get enough of it.

At some point soon, she would have to pull herself away from him and start her day, pretending they hadn’t fallen asleep in each others’ arms. But until then, she would stay here a little longer and imagine that they were two people who had the freedom to fall in love with each other.


	8. Interrogation

Poe shifted over from where he was lying in Hux’s spacious bed to look at his companion. He couldn’t tell if Hux had fallen asleep or just closed his eyes, but he was struck by just how young and soft this usually stiff and angular man looked.

This man who had been responsible for the deaths of billions of people in the Hosnian system. Not to mention countless friends and companions in the Resistance. A shudder ran down Poe’s back. He had just slept with a mass murderer.

“You allowed yourself to forget about Starkiller while you were fucking me.” Hux didn’t open his eyes as he said it. It wasn’t a question.

Poe reclined onto the soft pillow beneath his head, looking away from Hux. “Don’t play all high and mighty with me, Hugs. You didn’t seem to mind being fucked stupid by the First Order’s enemy number one just a few minutes ago.”

He didn’t even have to look over at Hux to know the man was giving him a skeptical glare. “What makes you think you’re our number one enemy? You seem quite tame at the moment.”

“Oh? Tame, am I?” Poe turned toward Hux and examined the pale expanse of skin that was exposed to him before he latched onto the redhead’s throat and bit down hard enough to leave a mark. As he pulled away, he ignored the dirty look Hux was giving him and shrugged. The man wore a uniform with a high collar; no one would see it anyways.

Hux closed his eyes again, his hands clasped over his naked torso as if he were going back to sleep. When he spoke again, his voice was so quiet, Poe had to strain to hear him. “Actually, I think you don’t care. I think you justified this to yourself by saying you might get something useful out of it - which you might, who knows? But really, you just wanted to fuck me and now you’re hoping your friends won’t find out and think less of you.” He paused and cracked one eye open to look at Poe. “Don’t worry, it’s not in my interest to tell them. At least not right now. You’re not the only one who might get something out of this.”  
Poe growled as he turned away from Hux. His cock had gotten him into some uncomfortable situations in the past, but this was, by far, the messiest. And the worst part was, instead of getting this out of his system, sleeping with Hux had just made him want the man more. In an effort to distract himself from his resurfacing desire, Poe turned to a more practical topic.

“So when do I get my time with my friends?” he demanded, looking up at the ceiling. 

“You cheated, therefore you forfeited. I believe that means I am the winner, by default.”

That little…Poe launched himself on top of Hux, wrapping a hand lightly around his throat in warning as he placed the other on the pillow above the Hux’s now messy red hair.

Hux chuckled. “But I’m willing to compromise. Join the next mission, Dameron, and I’ll let you see whomever you choose.”

“You’re really gonna use my friends as leverage?”

“I am the enemy, after all. You wouldn’t expect any less of me.”

Poe sighed and rolled back over onto his own pillow. “Alright, I’ll join the kriffing mission. When do I get to see Finn?”

***

Ben had left immediately after the Grasshoppers finished their training that afternoon, and, as she often did these days, Rey had settled onto her couch with a datapad and set about learning more about the rest of the galaxy. Growing up without much formal education on Jakku, she had known almost nothing about other systems when she joined the Resistance, and so she had made it her goal to learn more about worlds she might visit someday. Worlds now ruled by the man she had slept next to last night.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp tug of emotion pulling at her from Ben’s side of the bond. She couldn’t tell what the source was, but the feeling was strongly negative.

“Ben?” she found herself whispering, even though he was nowhere nearby, and all at once, the Force bond opened and he was standing in front of her.

He looked toward her and his eyes widened. Then he turned back to whatever he had been doing. His hand was raised, as if he were lightly resting it on something. After a minute, he dropped his hand and growled in frustration. “This isn’t working. Hux, give the subject some more… encouragement. I’ll return shortly.”

He stormed away and the Force bond cut out, leaving Rey to try to decipher what she had just seen. The subject…encouragement… Suddenly, it hit her. He was interrogating one of the prisoners they had brought back from Chalcedon. And from the sound of it, neither he nor General Hux was being especially forgiving.

Rey felt her stomach turn. Whomever they were interrogating had been responsible for some horrible things. She had known when they had embarked on the mission that the goal was to get information out of their targets. But seeing part of it happen in front of her, bringing her violently back to when Kylo Ren had interrogated her on Starkiller… was she really alright with this? With Ben doing this? With this being done in Hien’s name?

The door opened quietly behind her, and she turned to see Ben enter, looking regal and powerful in his full black tunic and cape, which he almost never wore around her these days. But as he stepped into the room, Rey could smell blood and vomit coming off of him, and she suddenly didn’t want to think about what kind of stains his black uniform might be hiding.

He stalked toward her, and Rey was torn between wanting to fall into his arms, forgetting about what she had seen, and needing to confront him. But he made the decision for her when he staggered to his knees in front of her, grasping her hands in his, his face tilted up to hers as if begging for her absolution.

“Does it disgust you?” he finally asked, apparently both trying and failing to read her confused emotions.

“I don’t know,” she responded truthfully. She placed her hand on his head, and he drew closer to her, until his face was almost hidden in her knees. “I know why you’re doing it. And I know I should hate those vile bastards and want them to hurt. But it just feels wrong. Even knowing what they did to Hien, I don’t want to pay them back in kind. I just want to make sure it never happens to anyone else, ever again.”

He pulled back so he could look at her face. “Rey, this is how we get them. Hux weakens their defenses, I get the information out of their minds, and we go after the bad guys. It’s unpleasant, but it works.”

“You weren’t that violent with me.”

Ben bit out a bitter laugh. “And we both know how well that went.”

She took his hands and pulled him back up to his feet, ignoring the unpleasant smells as she tucked herself into his arms. “Ben, this just feels wrong. Maybe if you let me try something…less harsh?”

He sighed and nodded. “We’re running up against a block someone placed in these prisoners’ minds. Someone doesn’t want us to get to this information. But you’re welcome to try - it’s not as if we have much to lose at this point.”

She took his gloved hand and placed a gentle kiss on his palm before lacing his fingers in her own. Then he waved the door open and they set off for the interrogation cells in the bowels of the Finalizer.

***

Kylo watched Rey take in the interrogation cell, and he knew she was remembering her own experience in a similar cell on Starkiller. He saw the way her breath caught when she saw the bloodied, almost unrecognizable face in the chair, and the way her nose turned up at the stench that was ten times stronger down here.

She squeezed his hand, then moved toward the prisoner, her hand outstretched as if she were feeling for the edges of his mind. She looked back at Kylo sharply, and he knew she must have found the block. Her face screwed up in concentration, and he watched her for several long minutes as she wrestled with the prisoner’s mind. The prisoner didn’t respond at all, although whether that was because Rey was trying to be gentle or because they had already tortured him into physical submission was difficult to tell.

Finally, she looked over at Kylo again, and he approached her, fitting his own outstretched hand over hers and lacing their fingers together. His power mingled with hers, and together they sifted through the mind of the man before them. Kylo was careful, following Rey’s wishes, but as they sifted through their target’s mind, they could feel him wince as thoughts rose to the surface. This wasn’t the agonizing interrogation he had begun a few hours ago, but it clearly wasn’t painless for the prisoner.

Finally, the thought they were looking for appeared, and they both seized it in tandem.

“Hux, we’ve got a name and location,” he barked out. “Cantonica.”

Overwhelmed by the effort of her first serious attempt at mind reading, and probably by the stench as well, Rey sagged against him, and he propped her up as he turned to Hux. Hux nodded solemnly, and turned to the prisoner, his datapad out, ready to receive the flow of information that would come steadily from the prisoner, now that they had broken him.

Supporting Rey with an arm around her shoulders, he led her back to her quarters.

***

She wasn’t really angry at Ben. She knew this was part of what he did, what he had been trained to do. But she couldn’t help feeling strange around him. When he had walked her back to her quarters and tucked her into bed, she hadn’t embraced him or asked him to stay again, and he, apparently sensing her conflicting emotions, had left without offering.

In their training the next day, he lurked on the sidelines of her vision, correcting stances and offering quiet advice just as she did, but never speaking more than a few words at a time to her. She could feel his eyes on her throughout the day, but every time she looked up, he was focused on something else. He was embarrassed, she realized - he had reminded her of the darkest parts of him in the interrogation room, and he wasn’t sure if she was willing to accept it. And truthfully, she wasn’t sure, either.

When their lessons finished, Riya and Alec stopped in Rey’s sitting room, waiting for the other Grasshoppers to depart before they started speaking.

“Master Ben. Mistress Rey. We have something we’d like to discuss with you,” Riya announced solemnly, and gestured for them to sit. Not for the first time, Rey was struck by how mature her apprentices were, well beyond their years. She raised an eyebrow at Ben, he shrugged in response, and they sat on the couch, the two adolescents flanking them in the adjacent chairs.

Alec looked over at Riya, then fixed his gaze on Rey and Ben. “We understand you’re planning an assault on the cartel leaders on Cantonica.”

It was Ben’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “That’s classified information. How did you find out?”

Riya chuckled and looked at Rey. “I know you told us it’s bad manners to dig through someone else’s thoughts, but you were projecting it loudly all morning.” She turned to Ben, and her voice became quieter. “You weren’t much better at concealing it, my lord.”

The air in the room changed suddenly - this was the first time any of the students had admitted in front of Ben that they knew who he was. Even if it was obvious to all involved, the charade had been helpful for maintaining an air of familiarity in the training room. But Riya’s address made sense - they couldn’t talk about serious matters while pretending the Supreme Leader of the galaxy wasn’t in the room with them.

Alec cut in, “Mistress Rey, we don’t like the idea of you going on this mission on your own. You got hurt last time, and we weren’t there to help you.”

She could tell Ben was working very hard to keep his guilt and indignation in check when he responded, his voice tight, “I was on the last mission, and I got your mistress out safely. I’ll keep her safe on the next one, too.”

Rey threw up her hands in exasperation. “I don’t know why everyone seems to think I need protection. I can handle myself, thank you very much!”

Three pairs of eyes immediately focused on her.

Then Riya turned to Ben, and declared, “We may be young, but we’re both powerful Force users. You’ve seen what we can do. You can’t afford to leave us behind.”

Ben sighed. “We can’t afford to take you. There’s too much of a risk that one or both of you could get hurt. I know Rey will feel much better knowing that you’re safe here on the Finalizer.”

He looked over at her, and Rey stared at the plush carpet for a long moment, pondering. Finally, she lifted her eyes and fixed them first on Riya and then on Alec. “This is for Hien. You know that, right?”

The two apprentices nodded.

She turned back to Ben. “Hien is part of their family as much as she is part of ours, Ben. They have the right to fight on her behalf, and I’m not going to stop them.” She addressed her students again. “Are you certain you want to do this?”

Riya looked over at Alec, then fixed Rey with her calm, determined gaze. “Yes, Mistress Rey. We’ve both decided.”

Rey sighed. “Then I won’t stop you.” She looked at Ben. “They’ve both been in fights before, but they’ve never been part of a coordinated mission. Do you think Phasma can put together a scenario for them where they can practice working as part of a team and using their Force powers under fire?”

Ben nodded at Rey, then turned to the two apprentices. “I’ll see what she can do.”

Riya and Alec took that as their cue for dismissal, and rose to return to their rooms.

When they were alone again, Ben looked at Rey seriously. “Are you sure this is the right decision? They’re so young.”

Rey looked up at him, her eyes solemn. “They’ve been through as much as I had by that age, Ben. They may look young, but they’re not innocent. And they have just as much right to take part in this as we do.”

She took his hands in hers, and he pulled her to him, resting his chin on top of her head as they sat and breathed together. Finally, the words “Can I stay tonight?” ghosted out from his lips, and Rey thought she might cry from relief as she nodded and turned her lips up to softly meet his. His hand moved up to touch her cheek, and they stayed that way for a long time, each taking comfort in the other’s touch.

***

When they had slept together two nights before, Kylo had remained completely clothed, even though his stiff tunic was uncomfortable to sleep in. He had used his clothing as armor against his selfish desire to make Rey his in every possible way. He had reminded himself over and over that, while she was here with him now, she didn’t belong to him, he had no right to touch her, he was only here to keep her company when she asked for it.

Now, however, as they moved into her bedroom, she reached out to unbutton his tunic, and he didn’t resist her. She pulled the layers of heavy fabric off him, smoothing her hands over his chest, which was now only covered by an undershirt. Keeping his eyes fixed on hers, he sat on the edge of her bed to remove his boots as she carefully unbound her hair from its half-bun and took off her own outer layers, leaving on only her sleeveless shirt and undershorts.

Kylo was desperately trying to keep himself from reaching out to touch some of the skin she had revealed when Rey moved back toward him and pulled off his undershirt, leaving his chest exposed.

She quirked a grin up at him. “This is how you sleep, isn’t it?”

He grunted. “When I sleep at all.”

She smoothed her hands over his chest. “Well, I hope you’ll sleep tonight. I’m sure you need it.”

Then she carefully laid herself on the bed and, carefully reading her body for signs of distress, he tucked her against his chest and ran his hand slowly through her loose hair. 

But this was apparently not enough for Rey. She reached her mouth up to meet his, softly at first, but growing more insistent as she rolled on top of him and braced her hands on his shoulders to push deeper into his mouth.

He moaned and grabbed her hands to pull her away slightly, staring into her eyes as he saw confusion blossom there.

“Ben, why… I want you. I can feel you want me too. Why are you pushing me away?”

He reached up to press a soft kiss to her lips, then gently placed his hands on her waist and rolled her over to her side, never taking his eyes off of hers. 

“Rey, I’m the Supreme Leader of the galaxy. People would say I’m taking advantage of you.”

Her eyes grew wide in surprise and indignation. “Why do you care what other people think? Let them say whatever they want. This is about us, not them.”

He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “I feel like I’m taking advantage of you, Rey. I’ve done a lot of terrible things in my life, and I don’t want this to be one of them.”

She rolled over to collapse onto his chest and groaned. “So you’re just going to leave me like this?”

When he laughed, he could see her bouncing slightly along with the vibrations in his chest. “Let it never be said the Supreme Leader left a beautiful woman unsatisfied.” He pulled her over to kiss her again, this time focusing all of his attentions on her body, on giving her pleasure. He ran his hands up and down her torso, making her whimper when he ran them lightly over her breasts.

He had never touched a woman like this before, but he took the cues she was giving him. Looking up into her eyes for permission, he leaned over and put his mouth on one breast through the fabric of her shirt, while rubbing slow circles over the other. This time she moaned deeply, and he could tell he was doing something right.

Remembering what he had seen her do that night the Force bond had connected them, he moved his mouth to her other breast while running his hand down to rest over her shorts, where her thighs met. This time she bucked up into his touch, and he had to tighten his grip on her breast to keep it in his mouth.

After a moment of gently running his hand over her, he lifted his head. “Rey, can I touch you?” He pressed his fingers more firmly against the cleft between her thighs so she would understand what he meant.

She whimpered in response. “Oh, Force, Ben, please touch me!”

But even after that vigorous assent, he was still tentative. He wanted to make sure he was doing this right. Slowly, he let his fingers slip under the waistband of her shorts and run through the wet hair he found there, exploring this new territory until he found a spot that made her yelp, “Ben, Ben, please!”

Taking that as a cue to continue, he rubbed his fingers over the nub he had found, moving faster and applying more pressure as Rey responded enthusiastically to his movements. He reached up to kiss her again, and found that she had opened her mouth up to him. Her tongue reached out to touch his, softly at first, then more insistently as she whimpered against him.

Finally, she pulled away and gasped, “Ben…your finger…inside me?”

He looked at her for a moment, confused, until she moved her own hands down and showed him where she wanted him. Slowly, still afraid he might hurt her, he slid his middle finger inside her, rubbing against her slick insides, as his thumb continued to circle her clit. 

He bent down to kiss her again until she croaked, “More!” and he slid another finger inside her, starting to pump them in and out of her as she writhed around him. Would she feel like this when it was his cock inside her, instead of just his fingers? He had never allowed himself to imagine the possibility, had reminded himself time and again that she was strictly off limits to him - but what if she wanted him? Would he be able to say no?

The thought of being inside her nearly made him come, but he returned his focus to her pleasure. That was all he would allow himself tonight.

Now he was moving three fingers rapidly in and out of her, his mouth sucking on one breast, laving its nipple through the thin fabric that covered it, and then the other. Rey was moaning louder and moving faster against him, until she finally cried out and pulsed around his fingers, her whole body shaking with her orgasm.

As she came down, he tucked her against his chest and kissed the top of her head, whispering sweet nothings to her until they both fell asleep.


End file.
